Wide Awake
Grade 9 Up–In this novel set in the near future, The Decents, who use God and family values to spread hate, are in the minority. The real Jesus freaks, who feel He would have loved everybody regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation, have prevailed. Gay, Jewish Duncan Weiss, 17, is elated when gay, Jewish Abe Stein is elected President of the United States. Then the governor of Kansas calls the election into question. The teen and a busload of his friends travel to Topeka to join millions in protest. Duncans arc from well-meaning bystander to political participant stands as allegory to the uselessness of empathy without action. Levithans dialogue is as natural and evocative as ever, and elegant, persuasive political speeches help sustain the wondrous mood. Duncans friend Gus, a campy man-slut who ends each sentence with la, provides much-needed comic relief. The members of The God Squad, Janna and Mandy, are equally natural and believable. Oddly, though, the romances lack juice. Duncans earnest narrative will engage any teen who has felt powerless, but his militant boyfriend, Jimmy, is just too flat to care about. Keisha, Mira, and Sara, a love triangle of indistinguishable lesbians, speak of pain that readers never feel. The story still moves briskly, by force of the uncertain outcome more than by involvement with the characters. However, in conjuring a world where every vote actually counts,Wide Awakestands with Levithans extraordinaryBoy Meets Boy(Knopf, 2003) in sheer creativity of plot, setting, and message.–Johanna Lewis, New York Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.