Love Is the Higher Law

August 3, 2009
Levithan (How They Met, and Other Stories
) successfully takes on the task of writing a 9/11 novel that captures the heartbreak of the events of that day through the eyes of three teenagers. Claire, in school that morning, finds herself drawn to late-night walks downtown. Her classmate Peter, waiting outside Tower Records to purchase the new Dylan album, watches the towers fall. And college student Jasper, who had previously met and planned a date with Peter, spends the day collecting papers that have blown into Brooklyn from the World Trade Center (“Something as mundane as two sheets of paper from an office file could provide the final evidence of how vulnerable we are”). Over the next weeks and months, they slowly and tentatively connect with each other, engaging in a healing process parallel to the one New York City itself experiences. Levithan renders the three distinct voices of his characters convincingly, and if some stylistic gambits (notably a 12-page paragraph conveying Peter's post-9/11 uncertainty) miss, more often than not Levithan brings genuine emotion to his portrayal of three broken teenagers helping each other heal. Ages 12–up.

September 1, 2009
Gr 8 Up-Claire and Peter are friendly acquaintances at their New York City high school. Jasper is a freshman in college. They attend a mutual friend's party, and Peter and Jasper make a date for the evening of September 11, 2001. They reschedule and have an excruciating date a week later. Claire and Jasper meet again by chance at Ground Zero when neither can sleep. Claire is called to action, Peter is reverent, and Jasper, a kind of "expert dodger," can't feel a thing. The three come to develop a deep friendship. Levithan's character development is quick and seamless. He defines the trio's personae by how they perceive the tragedy, how they interact, and how they observe the world. The author's prose has never been deeper in thought or feeling. His writing here is especially pureunsentimental, restrained, and full of love for his characters and setting. Though the trio's talks and emails are philosophically sophisticated, "Love Is the Higher Law" is steadily paced and tightly, economically written. Discussion of the U.S. invasion of Iraq feels like overkill, but it brings the novel to an appropriately queasy end. Levithan captures the mood of post-9/11 New York exquisitely, slashed open to reveal a deep heart."Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
Grades 8-12 Levithans stab at the great 9/11 novel captures the intersecting angles of fear, confusion, rage, and compassion that clashed in the wake of the attacks. We see the horrific morning through the eyes of three New York teens: Claire, dutifully at school; Peter, standing outside Tower Records to snag Dylans latest album; and Jasper, asleep for the first wave. Their immediate reactions differ, but together they express a common yearning for a reprieve from media-drenched paralysis and endless what-iffing, without wanting to duck the full jet of emotion cauterizing the city. A romance between Peter and Jasper claims the bulk of the narrative weight, as Claire becomes mostly an injection of purity who helpsbrings the two together. Theres no question that this is powerful stuff, honestly felt and deeply conveyed. Yet the story may resonate more with those who were teens or even adults at the time of the attacks rather than the intended audience, whose memories and feelings may not align with the characters. Ultimately though, this novels multiple levels of emotion, trauma, and recovery nail many of the simultaneously personal and universal sentiments unleashed after 9/11.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)