Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz follows Aristotle and Dante during the summer of 1987 in El Paso, Texas. During this summer Aristotle and Dante, who are both fifteen, become close friends and as they grow closer with each other, their families become closer as well. Dante ends up having to temporarily move to Chicago due to his father being offered a temporary position as a professor at a university in Chicago. While Dante is in Chicago he sends letters to Aristotle detailing his struggle with his sexuality and Aristotle investigates why his brother is in prison which his family doesn’t want to talk about. Dante returns to Texas next summer where he and Aristotle reunite and grow even closer while also learning more about their families as well as each other.
I really enjoyed this book. My favourite thing about this novel was definitely the relationships between the characters which was helped by having an interesting and realistic dialogue between the characters. All of the characters and their interactions with each other seemed very realistic which definitely helped define how characters felt about each other. Another thing I enjoyed about this novel was the coming-of-age aspect of it. There is a lot of focus on Aristotle and Dante growing up and maturing and discovering a lot about themselves and their identities in relation to gender roles. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a coming-of-age novel.
Written by A. Wallace
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