ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE
Aristotle and Dante, #1BY BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ | PUBLICATION: FEBRUARY 2012
SIMON & SCHUSTER | GENRE: YA FICTION
RATING: ★★★★★
“There is something miraculous about the ordinary
— about
friendship as liberation, about the bravery of discovering who you are,
about the tenderness of being seen.”
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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.
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.
____________________________________________________________________
This was my first book by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and I’m instantly a fan.
I’d like to begin by calling Aristotle (Ari) a lonely boy, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair. At the start of the story, he seems almost comfortable in his aloneness — steeped in bitterness, confusion, and a quiet resignation. He rarely speaks to his family, though his mother tries. His only brother is in prison, a subject the family avoids; his sisters are much older and already married; and his father keeps a distance built not of space but of silence. Ari has his own walls, too. He’s afraid of emotional attachment, of the responsibility that comes with being known. Yet beneath all that, he carries a storm of emotions — beautiful, sad, and aching to be released.
There was no learning involved.
I had been born knowing how to hide what I felt.
Dante, on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air. His worldview is relentlessly bright. He adores his parents and values their opinions with a kind of wholeheartedness that feels rare. He’s emotional, artistic, curious — a boy who reads deeply and feels deeply. When he meets Ari at the local swimming pool and offers to teach him to swim, their friendship forms almost instantly. Throughout the story, Dante keeps gently, persistently pressing against Ari’s walls of fear and uncertainty.
A world without any darkness.
Wow, a world without darkness. How beautiful was that?
This is a slow but steady, character‑driven narrative, and the investment in these boys is its greatest reward. I loved watching the stark differences between them — and between their families — and how each boy influences the other toward honesty, healing, and self‑reckoning. The breaking down of walls comes with moments of self‑discovery, painful clarity, and quiet triumph.
All of the answers had always been so close
and yet I'd always fought them."
Sáenz writes with a lyrical softness that’s easy to follow and even easier to feel. Not everything is humorous; Ari carries more heartbreak than he knows what to do with. But the novel still manages to make you believe in people again. There is something miraculous about the ordinary — about friendship as liberation, about the bravery of discovering who you are, about the tenderness of being seen. ARISTOTLE AND DANTE is a charming, reflective journey of two boys stumbling toward themselves. In the end, they learn that the secrets of the universe were never as far away as they feared.
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About the Author:
Benjamin Alire Sáenz is an author of poetry and prose for adults and teens. He was the first Hispanic winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and a recipient of the American Book Award for his books for adults. He is the author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was a Printz Honor Book, the Stonewall Award winner, the Pura Belpré Award winner, the Lambda Literary Award winner, and a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, and its sequel, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World. His first novel for teens, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second book for teens, He Forgot to Say Goodbye, won the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, the Southwest Book Award, and was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. He lives in El Paso, Texas.
Photograph by Vantage Point Studios
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