Realised that being stuck feeling like a robot, and like I'm a ghost and shit, is in fact dissociation and not just me being funky

Platato and Soquoque Discover: Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe

An unqualified book review by two unqualified people.

Platato’s unqualified thoughts:

Rating: 4.5/5

“Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer morning could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.”

Pain. That is – at the risk of sounding like any English teacher grossly underplaying a novel whilst explaining it to their class – the predominant theme of Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. At least that’s what I think.

           It’s not even limited to physical pain, there’s all types of pain, the pain of secrets, denial, rejection, marginalisation, defying the norm, expectation, the pain of becoming and the pain of being. Sáenz explores the complexity of pain in his novel through a story of becoming that follows two unlikely friends, Aristotle Mendoza and Dante Quintana, through their formative teenage years. The novel is written in Aristotle’s perspective and starts off already questioning the pain of becoming and being. In the words of Aristotle Mendoza himself, “the problem with my life was that it was someone else’s idea.”

Sáenz with his realistic plot and down to earth characters does something many authors have done but not many have mastered, he relates. And in more than the, ‘oh those two are humans, I can relate’ way, you can see yourself reflected in Aristotle and Dante in ways you could never in a warrior princess. It’s a book about two guys, it could be any two guys really, it could be any two people, and I like that. I feel as if I could be them, in another life.

Even if you aren’t gay, or Mexican, or 14, or 17, or live with both your parents, or have no siblings, or have siblings in prison – even if the story isn’t exactly your story, it still is. Because everyone knows pain, and above all everyone knows one, or many of the pains Sáenz writes on. And even though pain is subjective and no one can quite understand your pain like yourself, you learn something through reading this book. You learn that “maybe we just [live] between hurting and healing.”

Everyone is in pain. That is one of the secrets of the universe. I think there’s a quote that also perfectly describes this: “There is a famous painting, Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper. I am in love with that painting. Sometimes, I think everyone is like the people in that painting, everyone lost in their own private universes of pain or sorrow or guilt, everyone remote and unknowable. The painting reminds me of you. It breaks my heart.” Everyone is in pain and sometimes you can momentarily alleviate it, and sometimes you can’t, but what you can’t do is let that pain drive you crazy.

I don’t want to put words in Sáenz mouth, it’s quite possible that I already have, but what I took away from reading Aristotle and Dante is that you need to feel your pain. One cannot get to a state of quasi-healing if one denies they are even hurt. But in the same breath one cannot bask in their pain to make themselves feel ‘special’. What one has to do is feel their pain, feel it in all its horror and gore, feel it destroy and deplete, feel it empty and hollow, and then they need to remind themselves that they’re alive and whilst there’s more pain in that, there’s more beauty as well.

It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it’s not meant to belittle people’s pain (no ‘pull yourself up but the bootstraps’ bullshit here), but in the great fictional words of the subpar fictional Peter Van Houten, “pain demands to be felt.” And if you won’t read it for that, Aristotle and Dante are extremely adorable, they’re precious really, and their relationship and its becoming is a beautiful thing to read. Which I suppose plays into the redeeming qualities of love, another (oh me oh my I was probably a teacher in another life wasn’t I?) predominant theme in the novel.

Soquoque’s unqualified thoughts:

Rating: 4.3/5

“There are worse things in the world than a boy who likes to kiss other boys”

Life- that heartless bitch we are forced to face every single day. That is what I think Benjamin Alire Saenz’s novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” is ultimately about. The struggle of living a life that you are unsure of, constantly wondering if your life is your own, or if you’re merely a result of everything the people surrounding you want you to be. This is the question which plagues one half of the novels namesakes- Aristotle Mendoza. And let me tell you, he takes one hell of a time figuring it out, with the help of his partner, his friend, and the most cupcake-iest cupcake to ever cupcake – Dante Quintana. These two guys are proof that the world isn’t as shitty as we might think, and that perhaps what any of us really need at the end of the day, when we feel like everything is pointless and nothing matters- is someone by our side who simply allows us to just be, well, us. The reason why I loved this novel as much as I did is because it is such a simple story – there are no crazy vampire-angel-demon-god hybrids, no one is threatening to end the world as we know it, and no one is trying to save it. This story, is simply about the lives of Aristotle and Dante, these two boys- the latter of whom is full of life, who understands who he is and more importantly who he is not, and the former, who is so incredibly pained that your heart aches for him – for who he wants to be and who he can’t quite make himself. The journey of Aristotle is one rife with confusion, pain and anger – as he grapples with the type of pain I can only imagine; the imprisonment and subsequent ‘loss’ of his brother, the pained relationship he has with his father, and add on to that puberty, identity, a best friend who is just too adorable to handle, and one can understand why Aristotle is the way he is , and why it takes him so long to figure out if he likes that person or not- but the journey is well worth the wait.

Speaking of things which are excruciatingly long – the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ dynamic between Aristotle and Dante is one to put down for the ages. I have been through my fair share of agony over couples in novels who aren’t quite ‘together’ but should be ‘together’ but don’t seem to be wanting to be ‘together’ and this relationship in particular seriously tested the limits of my patience because hot damn did Mr Saenz make me wait. But I can say with absolute certainty, that theirs is one I would gladly suffer through a thousand more pages of beautifully written, funny, charming, witty and every other adjective there is to describe the brilliance of the novel, if it meant I would get to experience their final, glorious moments of love, all over again. If only to re-read the lines “I pulled him toward me. And kissed him. I kissed him. And I kissed him. And I kissed him. And I kissed him. And he kept kissing me back” – I mean COME ON! Who wouldn’t find that beautiful (that’s a trick question, because if you don’t you’re heartless, and terrible and live a sad life).

Because ultimately, as well as this novel being about life, it is also about love; allowing oneself to feel it- to allow all the pain which inevitably comes with it to wash over you, no matter how hard that may be. To accept it- in all its gut-wrenching, earth – shattering, ‘rule-breaking’ glory. And whether this is the love between a mother and her rebellious son, or a quirky father and his smartass little boy or even the love shared between a boy and his dog- it is everywhere. And what is so brilliantly done in this novel is that it shows us that any love, ALL love, is amazing and is worth giving yourself over to. One of my favourite quotes in the book (and there are many) is something Aristotle’s dad Jamie says to him, when Aristotle is grappling with this love he has for Dante: he says, (and I’m paraphrasing here so bear with me) “The problem isn’t just that Dante’s in love with you. The real problem-for you (Aristotle), anyway- is that you’re in love with him… I think you love him more than you can bear.”

This book is powerful, its encapsulating and it’s so damn beautiful that one can’t help but feel yourself questioning whether you’re happy that you have read it, or sad that it’s over. I’m still trying to figure this out and I finished the book weeks ago. But that, friends, is the sweet torture of reading – is it not?