Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz


My Favorite Quotes

“Words were different when they lived inside of you.” 
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

“I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand.” 
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe


“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, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe


“To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.” 
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe


“Maybe we just lived between hurting and healing.” 
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe



 Book Specifications



  • Title:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
  • Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz
  • Book Type: Novel
  • Genre: Young Adult Fiction, life, romance, coming-of-age fiction, homosexuality fiction
  • Edition: Paperback
  • Publisher: Simon and Schuster
  • Year of Publication: 2014
  • Number of Pages: 359

Synopsis

Aristotle, who also goes by Ari, meets Dante Quintana at the swimming pool. Dante can swim but Ari can’t. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante loves poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother, Bernardo who’s in prison. 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 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. 


My Review

I loved this book. I loved all the elements of the book- starting from the characters to the plot, everything was real flawless. It’s really hard to imagine that such a simple story can ever have such a complicated and relatable inner meaning.

First off, I consider myself lucky that my dad gifted me this book. Thanks Dad! 
It has a great story with a writing that’s so gorgeous and so beautiful that still after finishing it, I feel like I’m in heaven. I loved the way I discovered the Secrets of the Universe with Ari and Dante, especially with Dante. Dante was like my king. I loved him. I loved his talents, his opinions on life and especially the fact that he was “crazy” about his parents. And above all, we’d all wish to have parents like Ari and Dante’s, isn’t it? 

Secondly, I’d like to point out that sometimes Ari’s anger really got up on my nerves but anyway, it doesn’t matter to me cuz I can relate much of Ari’s life with mine…the anger, the not-liking-my-parents thing and lack of friends thing (please don’t judge me guys!) And sometimes, I was so impatient cuz it was pretty obvious that Ari loved Dante from the beginning but he won’t admit it! I just wanted to travel inside the book and make Ari realise that and if still after that, he wouldn’t have confessed his love, I would’ve beaten him to hell (don’t worry guys, I won’t actually do that…I can’t really hurt the people I love)

And thirdly, the message of the story…Love, whether filial or romantic, should be open, free and most importantly, without shame. And also, this book is a great example of Character Development. I especially loved the way Ari changed himself from being a melancholic, self-doubtful, angry loner to being a happy, confident and “free-man”.

But after reading this book, I’m sad…obviously not because of Ari and Dante’s union, but because of the end of the story, and this end feels like the end of this damn world! I absolutely want a sequel of Ari and Dante’s furthermore life and also a movie of this perfect novel of two boys who set out to discover the Secrets of the Universe! 









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