The Zen Leaf

It’s several decades in the future, and the first gay, Jewish man has just won the presidency. Duncan and his boyfriend Jimmy, both of whom campaigned for the new president, are ecstatic, until the election results are called into question. Suddenly no one is very sure of anything anymore.

This is a very, very political book. I would say first off if you are not a liberal person who believes in freedom and equality for all people, this book (and probably this review) will not appeal to you and might even offend you in places. There is a lot of politics talk and it is definitely skewed towards a particular ideology. This, of course, is an ideology that I agree with wholeheartedly, so I loved this book a lot. I think it’s my favorite of all the David Levithan books I’ve read.

I loved what Levithan did here. He wrote a book about the future, without it being a dystopia OR a utopia. Things are better, but not perfect. It’s funny, though, how accurate he was! The book was published in 2006 but predicted an economic collapse, soaring gas prices, and more fear of terror playing into people’s lives. I hope he’s equally accurate with the better parts of the book: marriage equality and a movement of Christians who support love and loving thy neighbor and equality for all people.

My favorite part about this book was the Christian support for equal rights. I always thought of Christianity and Jesus as loving and caring and merciful and accepting of all. If I were to ever be a Christian, I would want to be part of a church that was that way, someone like the Quakers who accept everyone and fight for equal rights. They are what I consider the best kind of Christian, the kind that doesn’t shut people out, the kind that doesn’t judge others, the kind that wants love and kindness to prevail. It’s the other kind of Christianity, the kind that’s sadly the majority, that keeps me well away from religion.

Of course in reverse, this also led to the only thing I disliked: that Christianity was so involved in politics. This makes me uncomfortable, as I firmly believe religion and politics should not mix. So much of the focus in this book is on support from Christians on questions of equality. I would have liked to see more from the non-Christian groups as well. But still, the idea of nice Christians outweighing the not-so-nice Christians made me smile and I hope that that does happen one day! I hope one day there will be a movement of the Christians who want to practice Jesus’s message of love, acceptance, and equality. Every time I see something happen in this way, it makes me so very happy.

Claire, Jasper, and Peter all experience the tragedy of 9/11 in different ways. They are all only barely connected – Claire goes to school with Peter, who meets Jasper at a party and makes a date with him not long before the towers fall. Love is the Higher Law is a shifting narrative, from one character to the next, and subsists far less on plot and more on the emotional impact of 9/11.

Since there isn’t really a story/plot in this book, I can’t really say much about it in terms of story. In terms of characterization, though, Levithan has done an amazing job here. I’ve come to expect that from Levithan. He can make me like and sympathize with characters that I initially can’t stand (like Jasper), and the emotions he writes out are genuine without ever being melodramatic. I was most interested in Claire’s story and wished more of the focus had been on her, especially as she starts the book off, but after awhile I became interested in Jasper and Peter too. I also wish the book had ended sooner, because the last few chapters felt more didactic and focused on impeding war. They didn’t fit as well with the rest of the book.

On the plus side, though, I loved hearing about 9/11 from the point of view of people who lived in NYC at the time. We all have our stories, but honestly I imagine the experience for someone who lived there is different from those of us who saw it on the news. There were things I had never thought about, like the smell or the papers from inside the tower offices that got blown into yards around the city. Even though I remember vividly what happened that day, this was a new experience for me. It’s the most powerful thing about 9/11 that I’ve ever read.

[And, on a sidenote, I found out one horrible tidbit about American law – a man who has had sex with another man, even once, even protected, is not eligible to donate blood. I was appalled to find this out! It’s such an antiquated and bigoted law! I have no idea what I can do about it, but it makes me very angry and I’m glad to have become aware of this!]