Wide Awake

Of the Levithan YA books I've read, this one wasn't my favorite; however, reading it right after Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother was interesting. Both books are set in the future - though Little Brother takes place in the near future, while Wide Awake occurs several decades from now - and they could be classified as dystopias, but they aren't so far from the current state of affairs; in each case, it's a recognizable, possible future. Doctorow's novel is lengthier, more complex, and more immediate; Levithan's is shorter and somewhat simplified, but it gets the point across.

Both main characters (Marcus in Little Brother, Duncan in Wide Awake) encounter wrongheaded authority figures in their school environments and have to decide when to stand up and when to keep quiet. However, nearly all of the adult authority figures in Little Brother are untrustworthy (at best), whereas there are more positive adult role models in Wide Awake. I could see these two books as an excellent jumping-off point for discussions in history and social studies classes in high school - discussions about politics, security, freedom, and rights.

From the Acknowledgments: "Thank you to all the librarians who care. You completely inspire me, because you show how the right book at the right time can matter, and how the right person at the right time can matter."

p. 111 "The only way to deal with the future is to make sure the present is okay."

p. 137 It was amazing, and it was graceful, and it was that most rare of things - a sound that makes us see.

p. 143 "It doesn't matter what you or I believe. It's about what they can get away with. That, I'm afraid, is the ultimate measure of a man: how he acts when he's wrong but knows he can get away with it anyway."

p. 146 "Yeah, those were supposed to be the rules - but feelings don't follow rules. Guilt does. Fear does. But attraction? No way."

p. 207 When he saw me, it was as if his body released angels. He was so relieved. So afraid - because fear doesn't wear off in an instant - and so relieved. ( )

The thing I love about David Levithan is that he writes about how he would like the world to be, not about how awful the world IS.
It wasn't quite as beautifully written as Boy Meets Boy, I thought, but it did almost make me cry at the end. ( )

A bit too forceful in its message that we have to make the future into a place where everyone is equal, and that we need to defeat fear and hate with love (and by ignoring it so we don't give it any more peer). It is an interesting scenario - a gay Jewish guy has just been elected president, and the "Decents" are trying to hijack the election (much like what was done in 2000), and Duncan and Jimmy are teens (in love) who travel to the state where the hijacking is taking place (Kansas) to prevent it with the rest of Stein's believers, who are there for the rally. THis is decades into the future, probably about 2070 at least, as 9/11 is "decades" ago. It's a nice place to visit, though the turmoil our world needs to go through in order to achieve it is depressing. It is hopeful, however, like most of Levithan's texts, if utopian and a bit too fantastical. ( )

I adore political young adult novels. I just love them. Despite many falling in the 'young adult' category not yet being able to vote, we are people and we are passionate about the world we live in. It is so great to hear voices of fictional teens who feel the same. Wide Awake is the stuff of a beautiful liberal idealistic heaven, and has to be one of the best books I've had the pleasure of reading. And he does it so great, too, with his typical mindblowing writing combining with perfection of a plot. He could have easily used the political victory as the ending, but instead took the hard and ultimately more rewarding road of tackling the end at the beginning. While some of the made up historical events seem a little hokey, once they're explained, it's totally believable, albeit idealistic. And while this may be deemed a 'political YA', more than anything this novel is about finding who you are and reconciling your identity with society's dissenting opinions on who you "should" be, whether dictated through social, cultural, or religious "rules". The "Jesus Revolution" mentioned in this book is a beautiful concept and I could only dream of such a thing happening in my lifetime, the idea of religion going back to its roots of love and kindness for all. Stein is kind of a simple character, and elements of the story seem simple, but there are so many amazing qualities found in this book. Religion could easily have been written off as a force of evil and hate. Instead, Levithan takes the effort to imagine people complexly and recognize that religion itself is not inherently good or bad, but a force for potential action in either direction, often both directions, in complicated, tangled up ways. This book is political, but it is about so much more than that. The personal doesn't automatically have to be political, but man, can the political be personal.

Rating: 5/5 ( )

A fascinating alternate future in which the perils of homophobia, Christian hatred and the electoral college play out during a contested election that could place a gay Jewish man (and his husband and kids) in the White House. The story is told through the eyes of a group of Jersey teens (not the Jersey Shore crew) and their family and friends. There are some great messages here especially about the silent majority of loving Christians who are out there focusing on Jesus's messages of love and inclusion. This 2006 speculative work has been turned on it's head by the 2008 election, but it's worth the read. Not Levithan's best work. When he's great, he's great. Here, he is good, and still well worth the time. ( )