Book Review – Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

How in love am I with this book?

Let me count the ways. From the very first page, I stopped to reread passages that took my breath away, that made me want to hug this book to me and never let it go.

I could have started a Twitter account dedicated to tweeting the entire text from beginning to end, and then when I was finished I would have had the pleasure of starting all over again. And I tell you I would not have regretted it one bit.

As it was, I had a hard time not broadcasting the entire book all over social media as I read along. I did pester my family quite a bit and read parts of it to them. After awhile, I’d just stop, wave my arms about and say, “This book! Damn!”

Here’s the first passage that stopped me in my tracks:

 

As far as I was concerned, the sun could have melted the blue right off the sky. Then the sky could be as miserable as I was.

 

Seriously?

And that’s from the very first page. Saenz is only describing the heat of summer. He’s literally just getting warmed up. He digs in deeper and deeper with his observations, told through a guileless, naked teen voice. He breaks your heart with his words. And you’ll want to thank him for it.

This is a book I will read over and over until its pages fall out.

 Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be. (Plot summary from Goodreads.)

This simple summary doesn’t begin to do this story and this beautiful, complicated relationship justice. Aristotle, or Ari as he prefers to be called, isn’t just another angsty teen with anger management problems. He lives in a house filled with silences. His dad came back damaged after returning from Vietnam without the words to talk about it. Ari, for his part, wants nothing more than to hear from his dad. His older brother went to prison when Ari was very young and even his pictures have been banished from the walls. The silence of his absence is deafening. Ari is a big thinker. He’s always wondering about how the world works and why things are the way they are. Like in this passage:

I wondered about the science of storms and how sometimes it seemed that a storm wanted to break the world and how the world refused to break.

Dante has completely different problems. For one thing, he’s not Mexican enough. Compared to Ari, who is just the right combination, Dante thinks he’s too light-skinned and too into art and reading and doesn’t really like anything that “real” Mexicans like. Except for menudo, which Ari says makes him a real Mexican. He also gets along with his parents too well. And he’s afraid of disappointing them (they way he’s disappointed Ari). Dante over-shares his feelings, where Ari keeps his hidden, even from himself. Still, they find a kindred spirit in each other and manage to make their relationship work in a beautiful way.

The voice, the plot, the setting all worked together in harmony and kept me firmly engrossed in the world of Ari and Dante and I never wanted to it to end.

I read this book at the recommendation of a dear writer friend of mine, and now I’m recommending it to you, and to everyone who loves a great story and words and beautiful characters. You will take this story into your heart and it will never leave you.

Learn more about Benjamin Alire Saenz here and here.

Follow Benjamin on Twitter here.