Hello friends! If you have read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, then today’s post is for you! The unexpected sequel, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, is now out and I am going to be raving about it in this post! Ariel had suggested the first book to me and it was early last year when we discussed that one on the blog. Check out that post if you haven’t read it yet. Read on for the synopsis of book 2 and a lot more!
In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.
Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.
The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.
Content Notes: Depiction of death of loved ones, homophobia, grief.
Thoughts on Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
On Internal Tug of War
You’ll have to create a space where you’re safe and learn to trust the right people. And you will find happiness.
Pg 14
Aristotle continues to be our narrator in the second instalment of this lovely series. He learned a lot about himself and continues to work on himself in this second book. His relationship with Dante is going well but the state of the world isn’t very welcoming to gay people. The AIDS epidemic is in the news and how that affects the boys is a very interesting backdrop that I had not pondered before.
Ari’s struggles with his sexuality were at times heartbreaking to read. Having never questioned my own sexuality, I found it hard to relate, but that does not mean that I did not feel empathy. As I get older, I like to think about the situations that I never faced, in order to equip myself for the future, in case someone in my family or my own kids face similar times. That is one reason Ari and Dante’s books are precious to me. Ari is brutally honest and vulnerable in his narration and it is impossible to not want to hand the book to someone who would get it.
On Friendship
One of these days, the world is going to be very surprised by the things we accomplish. But we won’t be. We won’t be surprised at all. Because we will have learned by then what we have in us.
Pg 269
Once Ari understands himself better and his parents are open-minded about who he is, it is time for him to talk to his friends. I don’t remember them being prevalent in the first book and I loved reading about them in this book! Ari wanted to be invisible for the last so many years and yet, he never was. This last year of school brings him out of his shell and challenges the strong walls he thinks he had built.
There are so many lessons that Ari learns from his friends once he lets them in. Adult friendships aren’t like that, at least that’s my conclusion from my own experiences and those of others around me. I appreciated being plunged back into the bittersweetness of last year of high school, figuring out what we are doing next and more. One of my favorite quotes comes from these friendships (see art below!).
On Love
I didn’t really know what love was supposed to be like. I only knew what it was like for me.
Pg 114
What does anyone know about love? We read about it in books and sometimes it feels like how we felt it but not all experiences can be put into words. Ari is so in tune with his feelings, his insecurities and his questions and I loved exploring them and their answers with him.
Reading Experience Summary
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World had the same lyrical writing that the first book did. While it is not fair to compare the two books because they portray different times in the boys’ lives, I felt that the second book expanded on the relationships that the boys had and would stick with me longer. It was a beautiful story that made me reminisce about childhood friendships and wonderful teachers. It reminded me of the leap of fate that we make sometimes and also of the trials and tribulations of discovering ourselves in the midst of societal identity and constraints.
This book will always have a special place in my heart and I look forward to reading it again sometime in the future!
Will you pick up this book? Or book 1 if you haven’t read it yet?
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World is available in stores. I got my copy from my local library so check out your too.
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I bought a copy of this book to add to my collection so all quotes have been verified with the print copy.
About the Author
Bio and author photo from Goodreads.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz (born 16 August 1954) is an award-winning American poet, novelist and writer of children’s books.
He was born at Old Picacho, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children, and was raised on a small farm near Mesilla, New Mexico. He graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1972. That fall, he entered St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado where he received a B.A. degree in Humanities and Philosophy in 1977. He studied Theology at the University of Louvain in Leuven, Belgium from 1977 to 1981. He was a priest for a few years in El Paso, Texas before leaving the order.
In 1985, he returned to school, and studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Texas at El Paso where he earned an M.A. degree in Creative Writing. He then spent a year at the University of Iowa as a PhD student in American Literature. A year later, he was awarded a Wallace E. Stegner fellowship. While at Stanford University under the guidance of Denise Levertov, he completed his first book of poems, Calendar of Dust, which won an American Book Award in 1992. He entered the Ph.D. program at Stanford and continued his studies for two more years. Before completing his Ph.D., he moved back to the border and began teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso in the bilingual MFA program.
He continues to teach in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Thank you for reading this post. 🙂
Cover image: Photo by salvatore ventura on Unsplash
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