(![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija Dec. 4th, 2020 09:35 am)
rachelmanija Dec. 4th, 2020 09:35 am)A lovely, sweet, sometimes very funny, sometimes heartbreaking (but mostly heartwarming) YA about two misfit Mexican-American boys living in El Paso in the 1980s. The prose and rhythms are very beautiful, which is unsurprising as the author is also a poet. It's as much a story about family as it is the relationship between the boys, and touches on a bunch of social issues while staying distinctly about two specific boys and their families, who deal with stuff as a part of their lives, rather than being a book about issues. I loved it.
I went in knowing it had some gay content but not recalling whether it was a romance, or a story about a platonic friendship between a gay boy and a straight boy, and consequently was in suspense for quite some time. Also, Ari's brother is in prison and his family won't tell him why. As a result of all that, I developed a Theory of Everything that turned out to be totally wrong, and I'm glad because I didn't like my theory. If you'd like some spoilers, read on. I don't think it's a book where being in suspense is necessary. The cut also describes some content-warning type stuff you might want to know about in advance.
Ari is very uncomfortable with his body and his physicality and sexuality, his parents won't tell him why his brother is in prison and are profoundly traumatized by the whole thing, and his parents sent him to live with his lesbian aunt for a long time when he was a little kid so he wouldn't be there during his brother's trial.
I guessed that the brother was in prison for sexually abusing Ari. Nope! Ari is gay and in denial, and the brother is in prison for murdering a trans woman. (Not described in detail.) Both of those scenarios explain everything, from the depths of the parents' horror at what their son did and why they're so freaked out about Ari, who they've figured out is gay, learning that his beloved brother committed a hate crime. Both are also problematic - there are multiple gay and lesbian characters, but no other trans characters - but at least the actual one in the book felt less pat.
There's some boundary-pushing stuff between Ari and Dante, of the "Come on, just TRY kissing me, you'll never know if you might have liked it if you never try" variety. To me it came across as teenagers playing out their normal relationship dynamics in an awkward way rather than anything genuinely coercive, but YMMV.
This is the first romance I've read in ages where I was actually in suspense! I have mixed feelings about Ari being SO in denial, but I let out an actual cheer when Ari confesses his love to Dante.
Audiobook read by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I highly recommend the audio version - he does a great job and is the perfect person to read it. His soulful, wholehearted, often very funny delivery is just right. Also he can pronounce all the Spanish.
You'd think correct pronunciation would be a prerequisite for a reading of anything but I recently had to give up on an audiobook of The Hare With The Golden Eyes, about a netsuke collection, read by a guy who couldn't pronounce netsuke. Not to mention the audiobook of my own Stranger, which is excellent except that it has two narrators who did not consult on pronunciation with the result that they pronounced many names differently including the name of the town in which all the characters lived.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
I went in knowing it had some gay content but not recalling whether it was a romance, or a story about a platonic friendship between a gay boy and a straight boy, and consequently was in suspense for quite some time. Also, Ari's brother is in prison and his family won't tell him why. As a result of all that, I developed a Theory of Everything that turned out to be totally wrong, and I'm glad because I didn't like my theory. If you'd like some spoilers, read on. I don't think it's a book where being in suspense is necessary. The cut also describes some content-warning type stuff you might want to know about in advance.
Ari is very uncomfortable with his body and his physicality and sexuality, his parents won't tell him why his brother is in prison and are profoundly traumatized by the whole thing, and his parents sent him to live with his lesbian aunt for a long time when he was a little kid so he wouldn't be there during his brother's trial.
I guessed that the brother was in prison for sexually abusing Ari. Nope! Ari is gay and in denial, and the brother is in prison for murdering a trans woman. (Not described in detail.) Both of those scenarios explain everything, from the depths of the parents' horror at what their son did and why they're so freaked out about Ari, who they've figured out is gay, learning that his beloved brother committed a hate crime. Both are also problematic - there are multiple gay and lesbian characters, but no other trans characters - but at least the actual one in the book felt less pat.
There's some boundary-pushing stuff between Ari and Dante, of the "Come on, just TRY kissing me, you'll never know if you might have liked it if you never try" variety. To me it came across as teenagers playing out their normal relationship dynamics in an awkward way rather than anything genuinely coercive, but YMMV.
This is the first romance I've read in ages where I was actually in suspense! I have mixed feelings about Ari being SO in denial, but I let out an actual cheer when Ari confesses his love to Dante.
Audiobook read by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I highly recommend the audio version - he does a great job and is the perfect person to read it. His soulful, wholehearted, often very funny delivery is just right. Also he can pronounce all the Spanish.
You'd think correct pronunciation would be a prerequisite for a reading of anything but I recently had to give up on an audiobook of The Hare With The Golden Eyes, about a netsuke collection, read by a guy who couldn't pronounce netsuke. Not to mention the audiobook of my own Stranger, which is excellent except that it has two narrators who did not consult on pronunciation with the result that they pronounced many names differently including the name of the town in which all the characters lived.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Tags: