Every Day

Best opening chapter I've ever read, and among the best books too

Every now and then, you come across a book—a book you don’t want to put down, a book that changes the way you look at things, a book that when you’re through with it you’re both upset that it’s over but overjoyed with what you got from it. I recently read a book like that: Every Day, by David Levithan. I’ve known about this book for two years now. The school where I teach assigns summer reading books like any other school, but one of the books is read by the entire student body. Books are suggested to the English department, they’re screened, and then three to five titles are presented for students to vote. For the summer of 2013, Every Day was one of the finalists—and the book I personally voted for based on the intriguing premise. Unfortunately, it didn’t win, and we read something else, but good things are worth the wait. I’m glad I finally got around to reading it. The story is narrated by the main character who simply goes by the name A. A has this unusual condition, causing A to wake up every morning in a different body. On any given day, A could be anyone—a male, female, tall, short, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, straight, gay, athletic, slackerish, stunning, addicted. The only “rules” that seem to exist about A’s condition is that the person is about the same age in the same geographic area, and that A will never return to same body. This may sound somewhat like the premise of the 80s/90s sci-fi TV series Quantum Leap. In that show, the main character Dr. Sam Beckett jumps from body to body during his entire lifetime, but Beckett stays in the body until he positively assists that person’s life. A’s trips into other bodies is much more temporary, and A adopts a philosophy of non-interference, somewhat like a tourist absorbing different cultures. Until the day A wakes up in Justin’s body and meets Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon. The first chapter of the book (Day 5994—A’s been doing this about sixteen and a half years) is perhaps the strongest opening chapte...