ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE by Benjamin Alire Saenz Book Review

     






Written by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2012

ISBN: 978-1442408937

Plot Summary: Aristotle is a young Latino boy growing up in El Paso, Texas "who is a mystery even to himself." He doesn't have anyone helping him through his teenage years as his older brother is in prison. He meets a boy named Dante who is unlike any boy that he has ever met as he shows his emotions each and every day. Ari risks his life to save Dante when a car swerves in the street and ends up with broken legs. Dante moves to Chicago where he experiments with kissing girls but finds out that he prefers to kiss boys. Dante gets beaten up and Ari comes to his defense and realizes that he loves him. Ari and Dante grow close and Ari realizes that his parents are human and have big emotions like the ones tied to his brother and Ari finally embraces his true self. 

Critical Analysis: This book goes through so many highs and lows and teaches us what it means to love, to be human, and how to get to the root of who you are as a human. Ari's characters grows in leaps and bounds from the questioning at the beginning of the story to coming to terms with who he is by the end. Dante brings out the emotional side of Ari and it shows through his writing and the way that he interacts with his parents. Saenz shows a beautiful love story that goes through the peaks and valleys of life just as many love stories have done before. 

Art and Literature play a huge role throughout the story as the means in which both Dante and Ari figure out who they are and how they want to express themselves to others. As with most LGBTQ+ books, society's conventions try to keep Ari and Dante from expressing themselves and the power of shame is evident throughout the book not just with Ari but also with his parents being ashamed of his older brother being in prison. Love is a mysterious thing and that is very evident throughout this well written story that any LBGTQ+ or anyone at all will be able to relate to. 

Review: Kirkus

A boring summer stretches ahead of Ari, who at 15 feels hemmed in by a life filled with rules and family secrets. He doesn't know why his older brother is in prison, since his parents and adult sisters refuse to talk about it. His father also keeps his experience in Vietnam locked up inside. On a whim, Ari heads to the town swimming pool, where a boy he's never met offers to teach him to swim. Ari, a loner who's good in a fight, is caught off guard by the self-assured, artistic Dante. The two develop an easy friendship, ribbing each other about who is more Mexican, discussing life's big questions, and wondering when they'll be old enough to take on the world. An accident near the end of summer complicates their friendship while bringing their families closer. Sáenz's interplay of poetic and ordinary speech beautifully captures this transitional time: " 'That's a very Dante question,' I said. 'That's a very Ari answer,' he said.… For a few minutes I wished that Dante and I lived in the universe of boys instead of the universe of almost-men." Plot elements come together at the midpoint as Ari, adding up the parts of his life, begins to define himself.

Meticulous pacing and finely nuanced characters underpin the author's gift for affecting prose that illuminates the struggles within relationships . (Fiction. 14 & up)

Connection: Students can learn more about being an ally and a safe space for LGBTQ+ people here. 

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512337.pdf

More Books by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World ISBN 978-1534496200

Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club ISBN 978-1935955320





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