Ariel and I chose Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz to be our February 2020 buddy read. This book has won a number of Young Adult awards and the joke was that if I did not like this book, YA might not be my genres at all. 🙂 Thankfully, I loved this book and am excited to share our discussions with you! Ariel’s comments and notes are in bold-italics.
Let’s start off with the 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
Content Notes: Accident, internalized and expressed homophobia, family in prison
Why we wanted to read Aristotle and Dante
I’ve had this book on my TBR for years, and I’m really excited to finally get to it! I have an appreciation for YA books that take the real and existential angst that young adults experience as they become more and more aware of the realities of society and give them the weight and attention they deserve. The idealism, passion, grief, and struggles are taken seriously and addressed in a way that is validating to current young adults and adults like me who are at least a decade out of that age range. I’m excited to see what the author will present in this novel.
My recent experience with Young Adult books hasn’t been the best and I’m hopeful that Ariel has found a book that will get me back into this genre again. This book piqued my interest because of the main character names. I know about Aristotle and Dante as philosophers so I am curious to see how they connect. Like Ariel said, there are many themes and realities addressed here and I love reading books with deep themes so I’m quite excited!
Discussion Part 1
(Pgs 1-179)
Aristotle has a lot of questions, and a lot of doubt. Dante is searching for connection, and both Aristotle and Dante find a quiet companionship with each other. Being familiar with both Aristotle and Dante as philosophers, it’s fun to see a metaphorical image of these thoughts in the minds of American teenage boys in the 1980s. I really like the poetic prose and the author’s use of silence within the dialogues. It’s been a quick read so far, so I’m interested in seeing how the second half of the book continues!
This book has taken me back many many years when I used to be a teenager and had friends who lived next door. Some of them moved though I stayed in the same place. I like the poetic prose as well and the dialogues are very real too – the conversations that any teenager has with his parents, the things we tell our friends,… they take me back to memories I have. This story makes me wonder whether I had the same existential questions that Dante and Ari do. Did I ever look at my parents this way? Did I ever think I would grow older and disappoint them? I have tried to find answers to these questions in recent years for sure. But most importantly, did I have a friend like Dante? I think I did. 🙂
Discussion Part 2
(Pgs 180-359)
In this part of the book, the emotions become more raw. The anger, the grief, and the unwillingness to address it all until forced to. Both Ari and Dante struggle with admitting to themselves and their families their sexualites, and they find different outlets to relieve that stress… until they have to confront their truths. The turning point for Ari is when he realizes that his family has been leaving each other alone too much, and decides to take the step to be near his father while his father processes his own trauma. He then begins to learn the value of processing with another person (instead of alone).
I recall that scene in the second half of the book when Ari admits that he doesn’t know how to ask for help. It is such a hard thing that any of us learn to do. We all want to do everything alone. We want to solve all our problems as well as our friends’ all by ourselves but sometimes, we need our parents to guide us, maybe even step in for us.
Though I did not get into any fights growing up, I remember this one guy used to follow my friend and I around everywhere. We were in Grade 9. He liked her and he stalked her whenever she went. He would call her at home and as uncomfortable as she was, she encouraged him and did not tell her parents. At one point, he started calling me up and I was terrified to pick up the phone and mortified to tell my mom. But I did. And she stopped it. I will not forget one evening when she had my uncle stop that guy and basically keep his bike to teach him a little bit of a lesson. He never bothered me again. He still followed her around but she was ok with that, so that was that. It has been many years since I have thought about those days, but this book brought on so many memories. I did not grow up in the 80s but some things never change. Growing up, in whichever year it is, has its own existential crisis and ultimately, we all do the best we can.
Ariel, did it bring up any memories for you?
I love how we both focused in on such different aspects 🙂 for me, the memories all stemmed from the desert-aesthetic and existential-musings. In the height of my existential angst as a new adult in my late teens/early twenties, the friends I had the closest connections to were the ones who could hang out until the wee hours of the morning under the big night sky and stargazing until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore. That wordless yet profound camaraderie was what really resonated in this book for me. So not unlike you, a sense of nostalgia lingers in this book that appeals not only to readers the same age as the characters, but readers of all ages.
I would have loved to feel the same – my teenage years did not look like that at all. No wee hours ever.
General Discussion
(whole book)
The poetic prose makes this book easy to see why it won so many awards! I felt a mood of pensiveness throughout the entire read, and the writing allows the reader to really feel what the characters feel. This is a coming of age story where the existential questions that become real as we enter adulthood are taken seriously, and the characters are allowed to feel raw emotions and the portrayal of emotions doesn’t feel exaggerated in any way. Overall, this was an excellent YA read!
Ariel, you have truly brought me back to appreciating YA again. (cue Ariel in the background crying in happiness) Thank you for choosing this book. 🙂 It reminded me of the friendships I used to have, how growing up changes so many things, whether it is friends or the way we feel about the world and ourselves, or about our family. For as long as I can remember, this is the first book that I have read which focused on friendship and a queer relationship. I loved the process of Ari and Dante figuring it all out, even though Dante was always more in tune with himself. I also appreciated how the relationship between the parents and Ari evolved once his friendship with Dante started. Dante taught him to ask questions that he had on his mind, and that takes a lot of courage.
That’s all for our discussion! You know we love describing our reading experience to you! Here is a summary of our read:
Interested in reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and adding to our discussion? Find it on all retail stores. Here are the Amazon links for your convenience.
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash
Lone road image by Diego Jimenez on Unsplash.
One way image by Donald Giannatti on unsplash.
I’ve had this one on my ‘to be read’ list for a year or two. Need to bump it up now! Thanks, Kriti!
Great book! Beyond great actually. I read it in English and Spanish. It’s nice to read a positive about gay youth. I related with Dante for sure. These characters are well developed. I loved the shared laughter and thoughtful conversations.