Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Vol #14
Hello lovelies,
Just want to address that you can expect Vol #13 randomly in your inboxes one of these days, haha. Anyway, I am coming back to you after taking a major leap in my life - I got married! While the two days were extremely fun, I hardly have any memory of what actually happened. Reading Ari and Dante was the recipe of comfort that I needed after the chaotic 3 months of preparation.
For me, Ari and Dante are like my friends. I read this book at a stage in my life where I was mostly seeing and reading about angsty teenage love. Then to come upon Benjamin’s soothing writing was refreshing. I fell in love with the way he wrote and I fell in love with all the characters. The writing envelopes me with warmth. It was so important for me read about men who were so gentle and thoughtful with others around them. It was also important for me to read about LGBTQIA characters have the same experience that any heterosexual characters might experience. There’s a lot more I can say…
I hope you guys had a similar feeling while reading this book. My take is biased but I am excited to share one of my favorite books with you.
Love,
Miti
About the book [taken from goodreads]:
Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself.
But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other―and the power of their friendship―can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.
Thoughts:
The gentleness with which Benjamin Alire Saenz writes is mesmerizing.
As a lover of rain, how could I not love this book that romanticizes rain so much?
One of my favorite parts of the book was the relationship between Ari and his father.
This book is as much as a coming of age novel - along with a multidimensional view of families and how they work.
The culture helped me relate to them. It wasn’t American and individualistic.
“Essentially this book is a book of memories, strung together not quite in diary form but over a period of time, sometimes short, others longer.” https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/nov/13/review-aristotle-and-dante-discover-secrets-universe-benjamin-alire-saenz
Quotes:
“I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand.”
“Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.”
“To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.”
“I hated being volunteered. The problem with my life was that it was someone else's idea.”
“I had a rule that it was better to be bored by yourself than to be bored with someone else. I pretty much lived by that rule. Maybe that's why I didn't have any friends.”
“I have always felt terrible inside. The reasons for this keep changing.”
“He tried not to laugh, but he wasn't good at controlling all the laughter that lived inside of him.”
“There are worst things in life than kissing boys.”
FRIENDLY Reminder, Our theme for the first three months of 2022 is Friendship.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Ari and Dante mark the end of our first theme of the year (hurray). We are still deciding what to plan for the upcoming months. Be sure to check in on the whatsapp group/email for updates :)
Lots of love,
Miti and Tvisha