Customer Reviews

Love Is the Higher Law

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Huge thanks to the girl who sat next to me on the bus to Chicago from ALA. She had this ARC in her hands when she boarded the bus for our 3 1/2 hour trip home, and she finished it by the time the trip was over. When I asked how she liked it, she nodded, I believe, then swallowed a lump in her throat, and offered me the book. Once again, thank you!

Do you remember where you were on 9/11? The characters in LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW were all in New York City. So was David Levithan, and that experience was inspiration for this book. As Levithan points out in the Author's Note, many young people today may be too young to have first-hand memories of that world-changing day. By reading the experiences of Jasper, Peter, and Claire, perhaps the emotions of that day and its aftermath can be experienced by readers in the years to come.

As the book begins, each character shares where they were and what it was like at the moment. Peter and Claire were affected immediately, while Jasper finds it difficult to admit that he slept through the actual attack and learned about it as he listened to Peter Jennings on the news.

The personal experiences of the three become intertwined as the story continues. All three are surprised at how directly they feel the emotions of the event. The life they once took for granted, the city they've always known as home, and the atmosphere surrounding them have them asking questions that have no real answers.

David Levithan captures the unique yet universal feelings inspired by the event that touched us all. Amidst the unanswered questions are feelings of greater appreciation for family and friends, the sympathy that goes out to those who lost and suffered most, and the human condition that connects the entire world.

Unlike the teen who read the book in one sitting on the bus, I found the need to set it aside at times to sort through my own memories of that day and what has unfolded since. The world is truly a different place, and I've concluded I'm not sure if it is for the better or worse. Time will tell.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

If this novel doesn't affect you you are probably an unfeeling person...just saying! This book is about 9/11, but seen through the eyes of three teens who live in NYC. You would think that it would be depressing and downtrodden, but no, Levithan took the saddest event in US history and wrote a book about hope around it. He shines a light on the good of people.

This book is told from three different characters perspectives. All of them are insightful and intelligent. They each were effected, but in completely different ways. You get to be a witness to the ways they handle it, the friendships they make and eventually to their healing.

There's no way to read this book and not remember where you were that day. I was a freshman in high school, so I was awake. I was at school in science class and somehow word reached our corner of TN very quickly because we turned on the TV before the second Tower was hit. We watched as the first Tower fell and people were running away. At the time, I don't think I comprehended that magnitude of what was happening. How could I? I had no scale to judge it by. It was of course a day that none of us will ever forget.

David Levithan took this day on beautifully. Not just any author could have done it. This book is hard for me to review. Not that it was a difficult book to read, it's just difficult to put it into words. You should read it for yourself!

I finished this book and my first response was to tell everyone to read it. Levithan manages to tackle two complex topics-9/11 and teenage years-beautifully. I was moved by the characters and their struggles and often found myself tearing up while I was reading.

My husband was surprised to see me reading this book. He remarked that I often avoid TV shows and movies that talk about 9/11; this is very true. I find the coverage of the people who died that day so sad that I try to avoid it. This book does not focus on that aspect of the day. Instead it captures what it is like for those who lived. It deals with how they got by in those first few days after the tragedy. There is something in each character that makes them relatable. While you may have not reacted the same way they did, you can understand their feelings and thoughts. All of this combined to make an honest and true story.

Another thing that I liked about this story was that it focused on teens in New York City. In many ways, this tragedy affected those living in the city differently than the rest of the world. They saw things with their eyes in a way that could not be captured on film. They lived the tragedy in a way that I never will. Levithan captures all of this brilliantly and is able to convey these feelings in such a powerful way.

Review: I usually find myself subconsciously skimming through passages of books while reading. With this book, I made sure to read every single word. There is so much that can be found and learned in the 176 pages of this book. A highly recommended read!

I picked this book up yesterday at the library and to be honest I only got it because of the title and then when I brought it home and started reading it I didn't think I was going to like it because it was about 9/11, needless to say I was wrong. This book is very good and it has given me a different outlook on life and how when things go wrong we as people can gather and just be there for one another in any way we can.

Many accounts of 9/11 have been written from adult experience and perspective: David Levithan's Love is the Higher Law comes from a teen's view and provides the lives of three teens altered forever by events of that day. A gripping, realistic account comes to life in a title highly recommended for any contemporary teen collection.

As we recently commemorated the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many of us noted that we were surprised not only that the original emotions of that day can be called up so vividly, but that we are still functioning eight years later, now occupying a future that few of us could imagine on that horrific day. Young adult author David Levithan, recognizing the relative scarcity of fiction for young people centering on 9/11, realized recently that those who are teenagers now were in elementary school at the time of the attacks, that they may be in danger of losing both that immediacy of feeling and the context of understanding. LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW is his answer to that lack, as he poignantly tells the stories of three New York City teenagers who experienced the attacks in a variety of ways.

Claire is in many ways the closest to the events, at least geographically; she and her family can't return to their downtown apartment after the towers fall. In the weeks following the attacks, she suffers from sleeplessness, walking the streets of her neighborhood, and, in one moving scene, helping a stranger relight the candles of a makeshift shrine at Union Square Park after they've been extinguished by a rainstorm. Peter is the only one of the three who witnesses the attacks; he's skipping school to buy the new Bob Dylan album when he sees the plane strike the second tower. He had been anticipating that Tuesday night up until then, looking forward almost giddily to a first date with a cute guy he just met. But in the aftermath of the attacks, Peter is not sure how, or whether, to love someone new. Jasper is the guy with whom Peter is supposed to go on that date; he feels oddly disconnected from the events of 9/11, since he slept through them, waking up in his Brooklyn home to find the towers already gone.

At first, it's not clear how these three near-strangers are connected, but it becomes evident over time that they were all guests at what they dub "the last party of Before." When Claire and Jasper, both insomniacs, run into each other a few weeks after the attacks, they share what will strike many readers as one of those profound moments of connection, a friendship forged by their common yet deeply personal response to a tragedy. And, when Jasper and Peter reconnect at another party, their shared connection to 9/11 --- and to Claire --- gives their budding relationship a solemnity and urgency that it could never have had Before.

The actual events of the September 11th attacks are confined to the 40 or so pages of the novel; the focus here is on how that day continued to shape actions, philosophies and personal decisions days, weeks and months later. A grieving Claire struggles with whether to shut out the world or to let it in, ultimately realizing that such a tragic event actually strengthened her appreciation for humanity: "I think that if you were somehow able to measure the weight of human kindness, it would have weighed more on 9/11 than it ever had. On 9/11, all the hatred and murder could not compare with the weight of love, of bravery, of caring."

As in many of Levithan's novels, music serves an important function here, as music fan Peter gets up the courage to attend a rock concert just a week after 9/11 and as he and Claire join the "congregation" at a moving U2 concert six weeks after the attacks. They share favorite songs, lyrics and mix CDs as a way to affirm their common humanity, the connection that they and the musicians have to each other, to their belief that art can both convey and transcend the loss of so much. And, even as the novel closes with troubling reminders of the wars that were waged in the aftermath of 9/11, it also concludes with the promise of hope and love.

LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW will evoke the terrible fear, sadness and uncertainty of those first post-9/11 days for many. But it also affirms the connections that were forged at that time, and how those events shaped the outlooks of everyone who lived through them, no matter what their age.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

What an exquisite work of fiction! David Levithan takes a significant date in history, September 11, 2001, and views it through the eyes of three young adults- high school students Claire and Peter and college student Jasper.

The first three chapters are each of the characters describing September 11 in his or her own words. Each of them put tears in your eyes and a lump in your throat.

But wait, there's more emotion to come as they describe the days to come and how they come through the entire experience.

I have read other books about September 11 but none were as well written or as moving.

Enjoy!

I picked up this book because it was about the events of 9/11, from teen points of view. I was not expecting to really like it, because I have not "gotten into" the two other David Levithan books I have tried. This one was different. As I read the chapters by Claire, Jasper and Peter, I experienced the events of 9/11, as if I had been there in NYC, from the initial moments to about 18 months later. The book was emotional, thoughtful, and never boring. The relationship between Jasper and Peter was not too in-your-face for my sensibility, yet had enough substance to be true to itself. I would recommend this to any high school reader.

After reading this book, I find myself conflicted about what I thought on it.

On one hand, I really didn't care about any of the characters. If the book wasn't on such an important topic, I don't think I would have enjoyed it at all. I am such a character person--they are what make books great for me. But these teenagers just didn't do it for me. I wanted to feel shock and horror and terror and sadness and caring but I didn't really get that from any of them.

On the other hard, I feel like this is such a very important book. It's the only book I've read about 9/11. And there need to be more out there. I mean, I know there are nonfiction books out there, but I think there needs to be more fiction out there. Young adult today would have been so young when the tragedy happens that I think there need to be more for them to understand and just FEEL about it.

So I'm conflicted. I wish I liked the main characters more than I did.

I was 10 when September 11th happened. It was difficult for a 10 year old to fully grasp what was going on. Reading this story, written from the eyes of three teenagers who were affected by 9/11 in three different ways, allowed me a new perspective on the event. The book was also set right in NYC, whereas my friends and I were in central Virginia when the tragedy occurred. David Levithan crafts a touching story in a sensitive way, realistically describing what three typical teenagers would have gone through in the wake of a national tragedy that happened in their backyards. He does his usual, incredible job of intertwining the lives of strangers, but as the saying goes, aren't we all strangers at the start? I personally expected to read a tragedy. I thought I'd be reading about three teens who all suffered huge personal losses, like the deaths of their parents or classmates. Instead, I read about three teens who were able to find love and hope in a messy, confusing time and place. I'm glad this is the story I found waiting for me.