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A review by leviofmichigan
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
5.0
This book took me back to all those early, sweet crushes, when I was just 14 and 15, the crushes that forced me to open up with myself about my queerness. By the time I made it only partway into the book, I couldn't stop reading. Alire Sáenz has quite a knack for writing queer coming of age fiction, and I imagine it would be more impactful for someone who's Hispanic or understands that culture on a deeper level than I do.
I think that with books like these, the temptation is to voice the character who really knows himself. To voice that fun, quirky person who grows up getting to know himself as readily as he gets to know anyone else. This author took on the difficult job of writing the character who often has less to say, who is confused about his thoughts, who doesn't necessarily think twice about what goes on in his mind. Instead of writing the character who pines after a boy who finally becomes his, he writes the character who longs to understand his place in the world until he finally finds it next to a boy he loves.
TW:
There is a short portion in which a very sad story is told about violence against a trans woman, who is called a "transv******," and the main character refers to this woman as a "guy." It's understandable, because the book is set in the late 80s and I don't expect the characters to know how to talk about trans people, but I do wish the author would have refrained from including this kind of story at all, because it was avoidable, and in the unlikely event that the screenplay of this ever gets produced, I hope another explanation is given to fill in the hole that this part of the story fills. Update: after a conversation with a friend about this, I disagree with myself, and I see the point of the story and its place in the larger story.
I think that with books like these, the temptation is to voice the character who really knows himself. To voice that fun, quirky person who grows up getting to know himself as readily as he gets to know anyone else. This author took on the difficult job of writing the character who often has less to say, who is confused about his thoughts, who doesn't necessarily think twice about what goes on in his mind. Instead of writing the character who pines after a boy who finally becomes his, he writes the character who longs to understand his place in the world until he finally finds it next to a boy he loves.
TW:
There is a short portion in which a very sad story is told about violence against a trans woman, who is called a "transv******," and the main character refers to this woman as a "guy." It's understandable, because the book is set in the late 80s and I don't expect the characters to know how to talk about trans people, but I do wish the author would have refrained from including this kind of story at all, because it was avoidable, and in the unlikely event that the screenplay of this ever gets produced, I hope another explanation is given to fill in the hole that this part of the story fills. Update: after a conversation with a friend about this, I disagree with myself, and I see the point of the story and its place in the larger story.