The Instructions

Read from Monday, September 5th to Tuesday, September 13th.

In a little over a week, I finished The Instructions, by Adam Levin.  1030 pages chronicling  four days in the life of Gurion ben-Judah Maccabee. It is hard to know where to start with this one.  So much action, dialogue, and philosophical opining is packed into those four days, and in spite of the weight of the book, it was very difficult to put down.  The best place to start is with the protagonist himself, Gurion.  He is ten years old, and in his fourth school, Aptakisic Middle School outside Chicago.  He is incredibly brilliant, a self-described 'scholar' of the Jewish faith.  Other kids and some teachers are naturally attracted to him, they become his followers and fellow scholars.  However, he has been kicked out of other schools due to violence, and inciting other students to violence, through building 'penny guns.'  Throughout the book, Gurion considers he might be the Jewish Messiah, which influences his actions later in the story.  The Instructions is Gurion's story told by Gurion himself, and it is his scripture, written in 2013 while he is in hiding, but the events take place in November 2006.

In Aptakisic, Gurion is placed in the Cage, a special classroom where kids are kept in cubicles, locked in, and not allowed to talk or ask questions.  They are caged off from the rest of the student population because of their violent tendencies.  This system, and the administrators in it, are referred to as The Arrangement.  There is the cage monitor, Victor Botha; the perverted gym teacher, Ron Desormie; Principal Brodsky; the popular basketball team, led by Captain Bam Slokum; the Main Hall Shovers, a basketball fan club (characterized by their stylish scarves) that behaves more like English hooligans; and finally Boystar, a huge new pop star that all the girls go crazy for.  In the Cage, Gurion befriends Benji Nakamook, the best fighter in the school, but also a confirmed arsonist and pyschopath, Vincie Portite, as well as Main Man Scott Mookus and many of the others, as they look to him for protection.  On the first day of the book, after a fight in the locker room, Gurion meets and falls madly in love with Eliza June Watermark, and they begin a relationship the next day in detention.  

In the cage that first day, Gurion says, in response to a question from one of his peers, "We must be on the Side of Damage."  Almost immediately, other cage students start vandalizing the school with We Damage We (putting We on the side of Damage).  Gradually, Gurion realizes that he is the leader of the Side of Damage, a movement among the cage students, and more and more students from the school at large, against the Arrangement.  They start organized protests and non-violent simultaneous acts in order to provoke Victor Botha.  The story starts on a Tuesday, and leads up to a pep-rally on Friday for the basketball team, in which Boystar is going to perform and shoot a music video, along with Scott Mookus, who is mentally handicapped.

Outside of school, Gurion writes scripture and argues with his parents.  His strong willed mom, an ex-Israeli super soldier, and his dad, an infamous lawyer who defends the free-speech rights of Nazis, which conflicts Gurion.  He initiates contact with all his former friends at the schools he used to attend, and gets them to march on Aptakisic on Friday in order to hear his Scripture.  Originally, Gurion planned to just sneak out of school and speak with his former classmates, but on the morning of the pep-rally, Botha held them in the cage, and rescinded on his promise to allow them to attend.  This was the breaking point, and Gurion called the Side of Damage into action.  Here the violence starts becoming quite brutal.  The students beat Botha into unconsciousness and steal his keys.  They break out of the cage, and arm themselves with penny guns, which are made from soda bottles and balloons, and can shoot pennies and bolts.  They attack the pep-rally while Boystar is performing, and a bloody battle ensues.

The Side of Damage attacks the basketball players, the school administrators, and the Shovers.  Other students in the audience join in the carnage, and many people on both sides get bloodied up.  Each of the Side of Damage has a personal vendetta against other people, and they pursue their own fights.  Gurion is attacked by Ron Desormie, but a well-placed shot from Eliza hits his carotid artery, and he is killed.  Eventually, the students take over the gym, and lock down the school.  Boystar is held hostage, and a police standoff ensues outside the school.  The Side of Damage, along with other 'Israelites' and Jewish ex-Shovers, try to buy time before the hundreds of 'Scholars' arrive.  At this point, this becomes a major news story, and the ex-Shovers get nervous and start an uprising against the Side.  Benji Nakamook is brutally beaten to death, but Gurion and the Scholars manage to quell the rebellion.  In their final move, Gurion and the Side and the Scholars march out of the school and through the police line, all the way to the shores of the lake.  There, Gurion gives his Scripture, and then the Miracle happens.  The water of the lake parts like it did for Moses, and the Scholars start walking through it.  Gurion hesitates though, and he claims that he will not run away, but will instead stay.  The scholars return and the lake returns to normal. 

The rest of Gurion's life is told by him only through various speculation.  He is hiding out in Israel under protection of the Mossad, who believe him to be a Messiah.  His devoted followers teach his word throughout the world, but he is still waiting for his moment to start a general uprising, but in what form it will take remains unknown. 

This was a wild trip of a book, and it was very unique in many aspects.  There are many diagrams drawn by Gurion that explain set ups of rooms and the final battle.  Gurion includes email exchanges and other homework assignments and essays that he completed that help to explain past incidents and the development of his mind.  And the language is also wholly unique.  There are many words the kids use in the dialogue, like suck as a noun, bancer, dentist, and many of the nicknames that take a while to get used to, but in the end you really feel like you can speak their language. 

The book raises many interesting questions.  Gurion believes himself to be the Messiah and leader of the Israelites, which alienates many of his Christian and non-Jewish friends at Aptakisic.  But while Gurion is very intelligent and just, (he vehemently protects his friends and the picked-on), he is also incredibly prone to violence.  Perhaps that is because of the injustice in his Cage program, but it seems he lashes out to an extreme degree.  Which makes the reader conflicted:  At one point you identify with Gurion and cheer for him, but while he is brutally punching in the face of another kid.  The school is obviously a fictionalized world, but while some characters are extremely well-developed, others seem to be stereotypical (the Jennys and Ashleys, Shovers, Band Kids).

The novel is incredibly grand and intelligent, and I flew through it.  It was also very funny in many parts, while dark in others.  Gurion is one of the most intriguing characters in literature, and he made me want to follow him into battle at times.  Four and a half out of five stars.