WIDE AWAKE (Book Review)

By David Levithan

(Alfred A. Knopf, 2006)

I’ve enjoyed a number of books by gay author David Levithan, most notably his young adult novels Boy Meets Boy and Two Boys Kissing. At some point in late summer, I stumbled upon the title of another of his YA books, Wide Awake. Published in 2006, the premise seemed very timely as a gay high school couple navigate their relationship while the U.S. election reveals that the country has elected its first gay, Jewish president. The country is deeply divided and the current president refuses to concede, contending that there was voter fraud in Kansas where the gay candidate won by only a thousand votes.

I was intrigued. I needed to find the book. My local big box bookstore didn’t carry it. (Grr! Books have such short shelf lives.) The book did not exist at any Vancouver library branch. I presume librarians of the day considered the book “too American” with little enduring appeal to Canadian readers. I asked a librarian if she could do a search to arrange for an inter-library loan in the event that one library somewhere in the province carried the book. It’s a great service, but such loans aren’t happening during the pandemic. Finally, I caved and ordered the book on Amazon. (I’m not a fan of Amazon and, for reasons unknown, I am extremely hesitant to order products online.) It took quite some time for some Amazonian to track down a copy and ship it, arriving the week before Christmas. (I think the point of this paragraph is to show that a book that’s seemingly so timely was surprisingly difficult to get. Wouldn’t a savvy publisher see the book as ripe to be reissued, especially given that it’s written by an established author (whose book, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, co-written with Rachel Cohn, was just released as a charming, holiday-themed Netflix series)? Missed opportunity, but I’m not in the book biz.)

Levithan would have, no doubt, drawn from the Bush-Gore election of 2000, Kansas standing in for Florida. But the author eerily foreshadows the deeper divisions of the 2020 race, one that also had an openly gay candidate, at least during the primaries. Set “in the near future,” the story begins the day after the election as Duncan, gay and Jewish, sits in class awed by the victory of Abraham Stein while some students and his second period teacher, in particular, are clearly feeling otherwise.

Shortly thereafter, Governor Roberts of Kansas, a member of the opposing party of Decents, announces a recount based of “grave doubts” in the legitimacy of Stein’s win. Stein responds: “We will not let rogue members of my opponent’s party throw the election.”

The incumbent president offers the following take:

[O]ver the past twelve hours a good number of events have  

come to light in the state of Kansas that have given me clear 

and fair reason to believe the election...is not yet over. Because 

of this new and important information, I will not concede the 

election, and will call upon my opponent to refrain from 

declaring an end to this contest until all of the American people, 

including the good and honest people of Kansas, have had their 

rightful say. Grave and serious doubts about the election have  

been raised, and when they are answered, I expect both the truth

and the facts will show that I have won the state of Kansas, and 

thusly the Presidency...

Sound like 2020?

The president-elect announces that he is going to Kansas to take a stand and invites his supporters: “Come to Kansas.” Duncan, of course, hops on a Kansas-bound bus, along with his boyfriend Jimmy and other high school friends who’d volunteered on the Stein campaign.

I have to say this is not one of Levithan’s better stories. Still, considering the book came out in 2006, it is remarkable to have Duncan and Jimmy as an established, young gay couple, already a year into their relationship. There is no coming out drama although there is some homophobia from classmates and adults supporting the other party. (At a gas station stop, for instance, a woman wears a shirt that says, “THE OVAL OFFICE IS NO PLACE FOR A SODOMITE.”) There is very little conflict involving the main couple—some moodiness, some questioning about how long they can last as a couple, given that they’re so young. Any issues between them are always quickly resolved. It’s a lovely portrayal, but it fails to create much dramatic tension, the biggest unknown seeming to be what will Duncan get Jimmy for his birthday. Even the reveal of that is a letdown.

There is some drama about a supposedly lesbian couple that the boys are friends with and see as having a model relationship. Duncan sees one of them making out with another campaign volunteer, but it all plays out from Duncan’s point of view which doesn’t allow for much emotional investment. In general, characters are not well developed.

I also found myself annoyed by an extended recounting of Duncan’s fascination with the Boston Tea Party in elementary school and the uninterrupted speeches various characters make. (I don’t wholly ascribe the writing rule “Show, don’t tell,” but the telling passages are too obvious and too long-winded here.)

Parts of the novel also fall flat as a work of speculative fiction. Among Stein’s most fervent supporters are the Jesus Freaks, including two of Duncan’s friends who listen to songs like “Lord Enuff 4 Me.” (Duncan’s narration says, “I tried not to roll my eyes.” Me, too, Duncan. Me, too.) In imagining this near-future world, Levithan refers to past political events like the Greater Depression and the War to End All Wars. He imagines a groan-worthy pastime of people going to “non-shopping malls” where people try on the latest fashions and ogle trendy merchandise, but nobody buys anything. Instead, they walk up to the register to make donations in the amount of the jeans they tried on and liked so much. It’s part of the Charity is the New Shopping mentality which caught on after the Prada Riots brought to light the economic disparity in the country. World building is a risky endeavor, done more successfully when the imagined world is more drastically different from the one Levithan conjures up. Note to self: I’m never going to write speculative fiction!

And yet, Wide Awake is still worth reading. The book’s value is in its uncanny parallels with the 2020 election. I’ve calmed considerably from my state of anxiety and outrage in the months leading up to the vote and the weeks following. You don’t even live in the U.S., I kept reminding myself (not that it helped much). Still, there were so many times when I couldn’t understand the other side of it. Who were all these delusional, conspiracy-spewing dolts? How were they so easily swayed and duped by fake news? How could they stomach such a vile “leader”?

Ugh. I’m getting agitated again…

That’s what made me appreciate this book. Given a fictional account of a contested election and removing Trump from the scenario (as far as I can recall, the incumbent president isn’t even named in Wide Awake), I could begin to see how an opposing side would trust its own information sources. Much like we have today, supporters of each party in the book have their own news channels. The only interactions with people in favor of the opposing party in Wide Awake are hostile. There is no common ground, only parallel universes existing in a single country. It’s all so very 2020. It’s why many Democrats and Republicans today are scoffing at Biden’s calls for unity and the olive branches that people seem resistant to both giving and receiving. Levithan offers hope as—spoiler alert—Stein’s victory stands. He underscores the importance of political participation and purposeful protests to ensure integrity prevails in the election process. Unfortunately, he does not offer insight as to how to bring a divided country together again. Perhaps that is too speculative a work of fiction.