I clearly do not know how to blog properly because it's been almost two months since my last post. I've just been reading a whole bunch. I'm here today to talk about what I've already deemed my favorite book of this year. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. This book just made me want to hug it when I finished. Ari is a great narrator and his friendship with Dante is one for the history books man.
Ari is stuck on always comparing himself to others and particularly this boy he meets Dante. He feels himself inferior. Ironically, Dante believes that he is not good enough for his race. He repeatedly mentions not being Mexican enough. It's very sad and very telling to being a first-generation Latino in an ever changing America. Our parents come here for a better life for us and in Dante's case his father is a professor so he is educated and therefore there's this extra pressure to meet up to some made-up standards. Dante's mother and father are portrayed as the most open and nice people and it just makes me happy that this book depicts the two sides of what a family could be. Ari's parents are nice as well but they are very quiet and haunted by the memory of Ari's never-mentioned brother that's in prison and Ari's father's military past.
To sum up my love for this book I shall mention some quotes that stuck with me because they are just great:
Dante: "Do you always analyze your parents?" [YES]
Ari: "They analyze us, don't they?"
I thought it might be a great thing to be the air.
I could be something and nothing at the same time. I could be necessary and also invisible. Everyone would need me and no one would be able to see me.
"I mean, when do we start feeling like the world belongs to us?"
"Did anyone ever tell you that you weren't normal?"
"Is that something I should aspire to?"
I suppose everyone has rules for things. Maybe we get that from our parents. Parents are rule givers. Maybe they gave us too many rules, Ari. Did you ever think about that? I think we need to do something about rules.
"Is love a contest?"
"What does that mean?"
"Maybe everyone loves differently. Maybe that's all that matters."
Everyone was always becoming someone else.
Sometimes when you were older, you became someone younger. And me, I felt old.
Maybe we just lived between hurting and healing.
