Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe
2012
- mexican-americans
- coming of age
- homosexuality
- families
- friendship
- fiction
- juvenile fiction
- mexican americans
- mexican american families
- bildungsromans
The story
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.
What it’s like
Warm, unhurried, and intimate, the prose of this novel moves like a late-summer afternoon in El Paso: sun-heavy streets, chain-link fences, swimming pools in the desert heat, and the quiet hum of a family kitchen. Sáenz writes in short, spare sentences and long silences, letting a teenager's wary interior voice unfold one conversation at a time, with humor that surfaces unexpectedly. Its mood is tender and reflective, a slow thaw rather than a crisis, with a gentle melancholy under the affection. The pace is deliberate, built on walks, pool days, and long talks, and the emotional arc follows a guarded, angry boy slowly learning to name what he feels and trust someone enough to ask hard questions. Language is frank and some scenes touch on violence and family grief, but nothing is graphic; the sexual content is limited to tentative, emotionally focused moments. Ideal for readers who want a quiet, hopeful coming-of-age story, a rainy-afternoon read, or a book that is gentle in its intensity and deeply humane in its attention to family and friendship.
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