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A review by rubeusbeaky
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
1.0
I am grading this book harshly because I had been expecting something either supernatural, or a little more manic-pixie-dream-boy/quirky road trip, and instead discovered that this book is New Americana. I hate Americana. I don't see the romance in a truck, a dog, a beer, a diner, the open road and the even more open sky. I hate Steinbeck and Hemingway and Salinger, and talking about minutiae as if it means the world, and watching a protagonist struggle with their /thoughts/ for 400 pages before abruptly ending. Fair warning, I'm a biased critic on this one. Spoilers ahead:
First off, props where props are due, I appreciated what this book was /trying/ to do. I like that this generation's coming-of-age-in-America story is about being a descendant of immigrants and being queer, and not really understanding one's own body, or place in the world, or how to find "normal"/feel secure. And I appreciated the motif of everyone carries a private war or storm around inside themselves, and is forever hurting and healing and becoming someone new.
I did /not/ appreciate the mechanics Sáenz used to sell these themes. For a narrator who's not keen on talking, this book is surprisingly dialogue heavy, but the dialogue is awkward and either pithy or self-righteous. I didn't believe in Dante or Aristotle as characters, either. So they're not jocks, fine. So, they like to write or draw, makes sense. Ari doesn't like TV? Doubtful. Dante spends whole hours reading /poetry/ to Ari, or sketching him, or writing him snail mail asking if he enjoys masturbating??? No boy ever - be they artistic, queer, shy, whatever - acts like this at 15-17 years old. It was too much to believe.
And the book itself didn't seem to believe that this was a queer love story. Ari insists until the very last page of the book that he's "just friends" with Dante. There are enough clues between the lines that one /could/ read this as a love story. But the book could have told just as important a message about a platonic relationship between a queer teen and a straight teen: Sometimes you desperately love someone even if it's not sexual; Sometimes the person you're crushing on doesn't feel the same way back and that can make or break a friendship; Sometimes someone we love comes into our lives for only a short while and changes us profoundly, but we go our separate ways; Sometimes you need an ally more than you need a boyfriend, etc. I feel like most My Fair Lady fans did when the play was adapted to film: Yes, you COULD read a romance between Higgins and Eliza, but the story is stronger when it's about a lop-sided relationship which Eliza /outgrows/ and /leaves behind/.
And as much as I love queer representation, I found Dante to be toxic. Red flags:
1) Dante bathes Ari, insisting he has consent from Ari's mom, and that it won't be weird. He doesn't exactly /ask/ Ari.
2) Dante repeatedly pushes his desire to go swimming with Ari, even when Ari is sick, recovering from injuries, or the weather is bad. He doesn't consider Ari's condition, only how good it would make /him/ feel to be swimming (touching, wet and half-naked) together.
3) Dante keeps score of how many letters he writes to Ari, versus how many he receives, and guilts Ari for being less intimate/a bad friend.
4) Dante asks Ari for embarrassing, private details, like, "How many times a day do you masturbate, and what do you think about?"
5) Ari tells Dante he's not into boys, and Dante is not to try and kiss him. Dante ignores this boundary, and insists that they should kiss. Ari REPEATEDLY SAYS NO, and Dante ignores that lack of consent, kissing him anyway.
6) Dante and Ari get caught in the rain, in the desert. Without preamble, Dante strips naked in front of Ari.
7) Dante substitutes a different boy, Daniel, for Ari, and /tells/ Ari that he's using Daniel to imagine being with Ari.
8) Dante attempts to make Ari jealous by dating Daniel. He then gets angry when he, seemingly, was unsuccessful, and Ari didn't follow them to a party to prove any hidden feelings for Dante.
9) Dante ends their friendship because Ari won't be in a relationship with him.
Many of these moments are meant to be cute, or are meant to illustrate that these boys belong together (Some boys belong to the summer sun, others to the storm. These boys are always wet. You get it? Metaphors!). But I found it disturbing how many times Dante tries to manipulate Ari, instead of being a good friend/partner in his own right. I know another one of the themes in this book is how we don't always make the right decisions, especially when we're being ruled by our feelings, and I suppose I should cut Dante some slack for being a teenager in love? But "Boys Will Be Boys" is a toxic message, one the current generation has desperately sought to combat; you shouldn't forgive grooming or abuse just because a boy was horny. And gay characters in fiction being conniving is an old, gross stereotype that recent fiction has ALSO striven to correct. Positive representation is important. How we write queer characters is important. Believe it or not, dear readers, audiences are impressionable! Shock! A book has the ability to inspire compassion, or inspire fear... I think Dante is poor queer representation, and I think he feeds some people's fears that gay people are predators. I think the reveal that Bernardo murdered a transvestite double underscores that fear. I think, without meaning to, this book actually reinforced the arguments of people who would decry queer folk.
Circling all the way back to the beginning: The title. Did this book deliver on its promise?... Kind of? What "secrets" did Aristotle and Dante really discover? That some boys like kissing boys? That people, in general, have more going on inside than they share outside? That dogs are perpetually happy, and humans are not? I'm not sure the "secrets" really counted as secrets, and the self-discoveries the protagonists make were kind of no-brainers. The biggest one of all being when Ari's parents have to /tell/ him he's in love with Dante; Ari doesn't figure that secret out for himself. I found Ari's philosophical musings to be immature - well-written for a teen voice, certainly, but underwhelming to an adult audience. I caught myself rolling my eyes or yelling at the book, unimpressed that Ari took so long to discover some things, or considered basic common sense to be "secrets" at all.
Someone will enjoy this book. Just not me :/.
First off, props where props are due, I appreciated what this book was /trying/ to do. I like that this generation's coming-of-age-in-America story is about being a descendant of immigrants and being queer, and not really understanding one's own body, or place in the world, or how to find "normal"/feel secure. And I appreciated the motif of everyone carries a private war or storm around inside themselves, and is forever hurting and healing and becoming someone new.
I did /not/ appreciate the mechanics Sáenz used to sell these themes. For a narrator who's not keen on talking, this book is surprisingly dialogue heavy, but the dialogue is awkward and either pithy or self-righteous. I didn't believe in Dante or Aristotle as characters, either. So they're not jocks, fine. So, they like to write or draw, makes sense. Ari doesn't like TV? Doubtful. Dante spends whole hours reading /poetry/ to Ari, or sketching him, or writing him snail mail asking if he enjoys masturbating??? No boy ever - be they artistic, queer, shy, whatever - acts like this at 15-17 years old. It was too much to believe.
And the book itself didn't seem to believe that this was a queer love story. Ari insists until the very last page of the book that he's "just friends" with Dante. There are enough clues between the lines that one /could/ read this as a love story. But the book could have told just as important a message about a platonic relationship between a queer teen and a straight teen: Sometimes you desperately love someone even if it's not sexual; Sometimes the person you're crushing on doesn't feel the same way back and that can make or break a friendship; Sometimes someone we love comes into our lives for only a short while and changes us profoundly, but we go our separate ways; Sometimes you need an ally more than you need a boyfriend, etc. I feel like most My Fair Lady fans did when the play was adapted to film: Yes, you COULD read a romance between Higgins and Eliza, but the story is stronger when it's about a lop-sided relationship which Eliza /outgrows/ and /leaves behind/.
And as much as I love queer representation, I found Dante to be toxic. Red flags:
1) Dante bathes Ari, insisting he has consent from Ari's mom, and that it won't be weird. He doesn't exactly /ask/ Ari.
2) Dante repeatedly pushes his desire to go swimming with Ari, even when Ari is sick, recovering from injuries, or the weather is bad. He doesn't consider Ari's condition, only how good it would make /him/ feel to be swimming (touching, wet and half-naked) together.
3) Dante keeps score of how many letters he writes to Ari, versus how many he receives, and guilts Ari for being less intimate/a bad friend.
4) Dante asks Ari for embarrassing, private details, like, "How many times a day do you masturbate, and what do you think about?"
5) Ari tells Dante he's not into boys, and Dante is not to try and kiss him. Dante ignores this boundary, and insists that they should kiss. Ari REPEATEDLY SAYS NO, and Dante ignores that lack of consent, kissing him anyway.
6) Dante and Ari get caught in the rain, in the desert. Without preamble, Dante strips naked in front of Ari.
7) Dante substitutes a different boy, Daniel, for Ari, and /tells/ Ari that he's using Daniel to imagine being with Ari.
8) Dante attempts to make Ari jealous by dating Daniel. He then gets angry when he, seemingly, was unsuccessful, and Ari didn't follow them to a party to prove any hidden feelings for Dante.
9) Dante ends their friendship because Ari won't be in a relationship with him.
Many of these moments are meant to be cute, or are meant to illustrate that these boys belong together (Some boys belong to the summer sun, others to the storm. These boys are always wet. You get it? Metaphors!). But I found it disturbing how many times Dante tries to manipulate Ari, instead of being a good friend/partner in his own right. I know another one of the themes in this book is how we don't always make the right decisions, especially when we're being ruled by our feelings, and I suppose I should cut Dante some slack for being a teenager in love? But "Boys Will Be Boys" is a toxic message, one the current generation has desperately sought to combat; you shouldn't forgive grooming or abuse just because a boy was horny. And gay characters in fiction being conniving is an old, gross stereotype that recent fiction has ALSO striven to correct. Positive representation is important. How we write queer characters is important. Believe it or not, dear readers, audiences are impressionable! Shock! A book has the ability to inspire compassion, or inspire fear... I think Dante is poor queer representation, and I think he feeds some people's fears that gay people are predators. I think the reveal that Bernardo murdered a transvestite double underscores that fear. I think, without meaning to, this book actually reinforced the arguments of people who would decry queer folk.
Circling all the way back to the beginning: The title. Did this book deliver on its promise?... Kind of? What "secrets" did Aristotle and Dante really discover? That some boys like kissing boys? That people, in general, have more going on inside than they share outside? That dogs are perpetually happy, and humans are not? I'm not sure the "secrets" really counted as secrets, and the self-discoveries the protagonists make were kind of no-brainers. The biggest one of all being when Ari's parents have to /tell/ him he's in love with Dante; Ari doesn't figure that secret out for himself. I found Ari's philosophical musings to be immature - well-written for a teen voice, certainly, but underwhelming to an adult audience. I caught myself rolling my eyes or yelling at the book, unimpressed that Ari took so long to discover some things, or considered basic common sense to be "secrets" at all.
Someone will enjoy this book. Just not me :/.