“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.”
Benjamin Alire Sáenz writes a captivating young adult novel, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, thatfollows the stories of Ari Mendoza and Dante Quintana in a seemingly childish book that touches on the weight and effects of race, family, sexuality, and coming of age on a pair of high school Mexican-Americans in the summer of 1987.
Ari spends his days in a very Holden Caufield-esque fashion, angry and cut off from the world. On top of general teen angst, he deals with the imprisonment of his brother he never knew, the PSTD of his father he can’t connect with, and a helicoptering mother.
Full of energy and information, Dante befriends Ari at the swimming pool at the beginning of the summer. Dante offers a new perspective on life with his open personality, constant questions, and “cool,” hipster-before-hipsters-existed parents.
As the novel progresses, the story follows the two through a car accident that leaves Ari hospitalized and Dante shaken up, a move that takes Dante to Chicago, and a realization from the both of them that how they see the world (and how they see themselves) is not the reality.
There are hints to Dante’s queerness throughout the novel, both explicitly in his description of feelings and metaphorically in the otherness between Dante and the rest of the world. The way that Dante distinguishes himself and sets himself apart from other kids his age underscores the rift between people in the queer community and outside of the queer community as well as the identity that comes with it.
Ari is a different story. He recognizes Dante’s magnetism towards him early on (although not as early on as his ever present mother), but the queerness inside of him is one that is not recognized for a good part of the book. He has always seen himself as different, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was until he is confronted with his feelings for Dante.
Sáenz explains in an interview with NPR that he used the writing of this novel as a way of coming out himself. After spending over 50 years of his life denying himself the right to live as fully and honestly as he desired, he absolved himself in a young adult novel.
While the young adult aspect can be a bit of a turn off, especially for distinguished queer readers who read classics like Imre and Orlando, the book has worth. It is aimed towards a younger audience with its talk of high school fry cook jobs and saving up for the car to take you to the edge of nowhere, but the flowery language full of metaphors and beautiful description is laced with real emotion that some distinguished readers need to feel again. For those who identify as queer or those who do not, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe offers an experience to remind us that life has never been easy, no matter how you present yourself and that “we all fight our own private wars.”
