Interview with David Levithan
Interview with David Levithan, author of Love is the Higher Law and books such as Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (written with Rachel Cohen), Boy Meets Boy, and The Realm of Possibility.
It has been eight years since September 11, 2001. When did you realize that you wanted to write a novel about the events in New York on that day? Was it something that gradually snuck up on you or something you decided relatively recently?
It definitely was something that happened gradually. At first, I thought there was no way I would write about 9/11, except in emails to friends. It was too close, too hard. Plus, I figured hundreds of other writers would write novels about it. But nobody did. And as time went by, I felt more and more urgency for someone to capture that time. Ultimately, I took on the task myself, but not without hesitation.
I found this quote on page 73 to be especially poignant: “Here’s what breaks us: even though we know better we still want everything to be alright.” Was this idea one of the motivations for writing this book?
I think this is more what emerged as I was writing the book – as with most of what I write, I don’t really find the articulation until I’m actually writing, and the words are there. That line does, however come from the first chapter I wrote for the book. That moment for Claire was the one I felt I had to convey before I could let myself write the rest of the book. I had to feel confident that I could capture the time in some way, or else the whole book would miss the mark.
Do you personally have any stories of becoming closer to people or getting to know strangers as a result of September 11?
It’s become part of the fabric of most of the friendships I’ve had since that time. For longtime friends, suddenly we were reacting together to something completely unprecedented in our lives. And for new friends, it just made the whole time more intense. The night of 9/11, there was no way for me to really get home – I live across the river in Hoboken, and all the trains had stopped running. There was ferry service, but the line was hours long. So I walked up to 14th Street to my friend Eliza’s apartment, and stayed with her and her sister Hallie. It’s a moment we’ll always have, where our personal histories and a greater history had such a deep collision.
I feel that the writing in the beginning of the book mirrors the feeling of the events in Manhattan on September 11 (I was there myself that day). There is no easing you in – just wham, here we are and this is what is going on. Was this deliberate?
Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any other effective way to write a book like this. Had I started any earlier, the reader would have known what was coming even though the characters didn’t, and that takes away the authenticity of the characters’ shock. None of us had any foreshadowing for that morning, and readers shouldn’t either. It’s admittedly a very strange structure for a book – the climactic event happens in the first chapter. But it made sense for a book that is about an aftermath.
As part of your research for this book did you spent any time talking to teens about their experiences of September 11 and their thoughts on the future in light of those events?
It’s all really based on my own experiences, and those of friends I talked to at the time (including some teens). But it was very important to me to really stay focused on my own thoughts and feelings, because I didn’t want to be presumptuous or overly speculative about something that’s so personal.
Was it emotionally difficult for you to write this book?
Absolutely. But not entirely in ways you’d expect. It was gloomy to remember that day so much, but I was also inspired by the magic of the coming-together that happened, and that I think still exists in New York. The difficult part was wondering how so much of the good will was squandered, and feeling that history took the wrong course – at least for eight years. Also, fact-checking was hard. I was actually on vacation and had to go back and read the 9-11 Commission report to make sure my chronology of that day was correct. And what an astonishing and horrifying document that is.
You have also co-written two books with Rachel Cohn. How is this experience different from the experience of writing alone?
It’s completely different (and much more fun) to write with someone else. The energy just bounces back and forth, so you can feed off the other author’s work, and vice versa. Plus, you’re only responsible for one chapter at a time instead of having to always take the long view, which is great.
How do you balance your duties as an editor with your writing career? Does living in both worlds make each job harder or easier?
Strange to say, I just do it. I love both parts. Really, it’s only my sleep that gets sacrificed from time to time.
I’ve read that you are a big music fan, and this is pretty apparent while reading this book. Is the music that you mention in Love Is The Higher Law music that you were listening to while writing it, music you listened to in the weeks and months after September 11, or just music that you thought the characters would listen to?
Most of the music in the book is really coming from one of the characters, Peter, whose taste does mirror mine. But it fit, because it is definitely the same taste a teenage boy would have had at the time – Dylan, U2, Travis. The two concerts in the book are concerts I went to. And the one song that’s quoted – Cindy Bullens’s “Better Than I’ve Ever Been” – was a song that really helped me get through that time. It was written from a place of her own grief and hope, and then I used it to map out a much less personal, more global grief and hope. Which I think says so much about how art can work in times of distress – that there is healing in the articulation, and hope when you hear someone else articulating what you are feeling or what you want to be feeling.
Finally, given the title, are you a big U2 fan? Have you sent copies to the band?
The U2 concert that’s in the book was probably the most powerful concert I’ve ever been to – partly because of the band, but partly because of the times. I don’t know that I’d say they’re my favorite band, but they’ve definitely written some of my favorite songs. And I will be ever-grateful for the moment when I was listening to the Mary J. Blige & U2 version of “One” and thought, “I think I found my title!” Because up until then, it had just been called “the 9/11 book” – which didn’t really sum it up nearly as nicely as Bono’s line.
