Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Written by: Benjamin Alire Saenz
Series: N/A
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: February 21, 2012
Genre: YA Contemporary (Circa 1987)
Pages: 368
Source: Borrowed from Library
Buy the Book: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Synopsis: 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. (Via Amazon)
Brian’s Review: I’ve been a very lucky reader this last month, first with Alex Sanchez’ Rainbow Boys, and now Benjamin Alire Saenz’ enchanting Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Both are gay young adult novels, both told very differently. Rainbow Boys, as much as I loved it, is in-your-face gay, about gay issues, about gay characters, about gay themes. Almost every scene is about how one of the three protagonists is dealing with being gay. This is partly why I loved Rainbow Boys so much, because I could relate to it so well. I could see myself in all three of the main characters, and in the situations they often found themselves in. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is a more subtle gay YA novel, one that tells of a special friendship between two latino boys over the course of a couple years that only toward the end starts to evolve into something more than friendship. It’s written in sparse, short chapters that read easy, but still offers a deep and engaging experience.
The story is told in the point of view of Aristotle (who likes to go by Ari). He’s had it pretty hard for awhile, with an older brother rotting away in prison, and parents who don’t even acknowledge his brother’s existence. He’s a loner and doesn’t have many friends, until he meets Dante at the local swimming pool. The two hit it off immediately and begin spending a lot of time together. Through Dante, Ari sees a family life that is more loving, more engaged with each other (Dante’s parents are teachers!). Not until Ari gets to know Dante over the course of many months does he realize there’s something different about Dante—that he might not be like all the other boys in terms of who he is, and who he wants to love. Ari saves Dante’s life in a nearly fatal car accident, and ends up having to correspond with Dante when he moves away to another school. But throughout it all, they stay in touch, and they stay close, and it isn’t toward the end that Ari discovers a secret about himself.
Again, this novel is subtle. It doesn’t pound you over the head with its gayness, with any big, significant themes. It’s just a really sweet story, about two characters absurdly underrepresented in young adult fiction—gay latinos. These two main characters pop off the page with their hopes, their fears, their eccentricities. Author Benjamin Alire Saenz is gifted with a great voice for his characters; I was astonished to find out he is nearly sixty years old, since he writes teenagers so well. His credits are amazing, with publications not just in YA fiction but in children’s books, adult novels, short story collections, and poetry. His writing style might be a turn off for some, but I found it kind of liberating. He packs his book with chapters short enough to please James Patterson, sometimes with just a few snappy sentences, and sections of dialog that have no attributions. Ari and Dante will talk to each other for a whole page, and there won’t be one attribution. No stage direction whatsoever. It’s a different style than I’m used to, one close to the screenwriting format I studied in college, but it worked for this story. I was still able to picture Ari and Dante as they went on their adventures together, and the sparseness of the writing actually adds to the cathartic final scenes, to the heart-stopping final scene that will bring a smile to any reader’s face.
This is the kind of book that the Printz award was made for. Would I have ever read—hell, heard of—this book, if it hadn’t been for the Printz honor award? I’d bet no. I was probably going to read it anyway, but then I saw it nominated for a Lambda award, and I knew I had to reserve a copy at the local library. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one giant mouthful of a title, but it’s well worth picking up if you’re searching for something a little different. I fell in love with this book, and it joins Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac and Rainbow Boys as one of my favorite reads of 2013.
