Aristotle And Dante Disover The Secrets Of The Universe, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

           

 

        A big part of why I started this blog is interacting with my younger self, to understand and process the ideas and feeling that were going in my mind at the time, and this book played a big role in shaping who I am, although at this age I wish I had at the time read more philosophy and more complex literature as often as I read young adult book, but I never regret any moment I spent on reading this book when just came out, it’s five out of five for me, beautifully written, spectacularly representative of the mind of a fifteen/sixteen gay boy living in a rough violent neighborhood, perfect stream of consciousness, and almost perfect execution, I once read that we know that a book is good when it transports us and this book does it, at least for me

This book transported me to a time where being different wasn’t tolerated in all the states, people had to struggle to be who they are even within themselves. It’s almost like Larry Kramer or Tennessee Williams mixed in a young adult book, and it’s so cool. I really love the spirit of the book, and the message it stands for.

Well, Aristotle is a fifteen year old boy, he is Mexican living in a very rough neighborhood, his brother is in prison, and his older twin sisters are twelve years older than him, so he is so distant in age and even physically from his siblings, and even the ones that are close to him are distant except for his mother, and by the way I really loved his mom, but his father is inscrutable, he is fighting his own battles of Vietnam War inside of him. Aristotle is very reserved, he doesn’t have any friends , he doesn’t like to hung out around guys, and he couldn’t stay around in boy scouting, anyway he is very deep in personality, he thinks of some deep existential things inside of him, he has too many mysteries or secrets out there in the universe that he feels he should demystify in order to feel a more halcyon state of mind.

The book starts in the beginning of summer and Aristotle is processing the summertime sadness, I feel it whenever I finish a school year because of my friends at college live very far away and I miss them, but for me now it seems permanent, I just finished college so yeah I totally got under the skin of the fifteen year old friendless Ari for whom summer is hellish, until he meets Dante, a fifteen year old Mexican boy who is very smart, open, and hungry for knowledge, but he is also as lonely as Aristotle.

In Dante he finds consolation, he shares with him all his unanswered questions, for example why his brother is in prison, and why his dad is keeping secrets inside, and why he has to follow rules.

Their friendship develops in ups and downs, sometimes they’re reading to each others, other times they are watching the starts for a telescope, sometimes they’re saving birds, or analyzing paintings or Dante trying to sketch Aristotle. But the most heart breaking thing for me in the book, spoiler alert, is to see Aristotle unconsciously fighting who he is, he keeps running away from Dante at times, and he is afraid of becoming like him, and also it broke my heart to see Dante trying to make him jealous.

The main theme for me in the book is the transition from boyhood, to manhood. First of all, Ari and Dante gradually grow up in the course of events, and their actions change from their fifteen selves to their sixteen grown up selves, in the beginning of the book they’re throwing shoes in the middle of the street, and jumping around, or just talk about their problematic questions concerning the universe, but as they grow up, Ari became physically stronger and Dante was experimenting drugs and kissing boys and girls to figure out what he prefers, in the beginning of the book Ari’s mom had a rule about drinking an in the end she places a beer in front of him knowing that he already drinks. Moreover, what is most important, in the start Dante and Aristotle were attached emotionally which was okay as long as they kept it secretive, but they become very physically attracted to each others in the end of the book, there is even this scene where they go out from the truck naked under the rain in the desert. Second of all, both Dante and Aristotle think that by being themselves they’re going to disappoint their parents which creates a heavy burden for kids to carry, for Aristole there is the shadow of his brother, he feels obliged to behave, and be polite, and for Dante, being the only kid, he thinks he is taking away his parents expectations of having grandchildren.

Another theme in the book was family solidarity. At the beginning of the book I hated Ari’s mom, I thought she was stereotypically YA mom, but as the story unfolds we discover how strong she was and the hardships she has been through first with her husband going to war, and later on with her son going to prison, I would love to say more, but I encourage you to discover his mom on your own, but his mom is also concerned about Ari, she can see through him, she notices the struggle and pain inside of him, that’s a very painful event for parents when they see their kids struggling with their own insecurities but can’t actually save them no matter what. Family solidarity is also presented in Ari’s Aunt Ophelia who was living with her lifetime female lover, and it was breathtaking to read that part in the book, the depth of the book extends to a very hard past, Ophelia was abandoned by her family, they rejected, and no one came to her funeral except for Ari and his family, that was so sad.

Now the most important theme is homosexuality in the context of the eighties in Mexico. The Author could have chosen to write about a contemporary love story, but he chose to transport us back to a dark place the history in the LGBTQ+ community. Mexico in the book is more than a place, for me it represented every ideology that makes you hate yourself, so while Aristotle was embracing Mexico and fighting his homosexuality, Dante was trying to turn his back on Mexico, and embrace his homosexuality. There is once scene where Dante gets beaten up with four kids, and the strange question in the reader’s mind is why didn’t he run away, why he stood there and let them break his bones, for me I reckon that Benjamin wanted to show the hazards of discriminatory cultures on minorities, he wanted to put us face to face with the horrors homophobia cause.