Aristotle and Dante's story picks up where it left off in this sentimental and affirming sequel to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, the Printz Honor and Stonewall, Pura Belpré and Lambda Literary Award-winning novel by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (The Inexplicable Logic of My Life). This long-awaited second entry brilliantly shepherds Ari and Dante into adulthood.
Being gay and loving Dante Quintana in the late 1980s seems impossible for 17-year-old Aristotle Mendoza. The AIDS epidemic, which has killed 40,000 men, has made society fear people like him and Dante. They could never get married. Never kiss in public. "We're screwed," Dante tells Ari. "We'll never be Mexican enough. We'll never be American enough. And we'll never be straight enough." During their last year of high school, Ari narrates his and Dante's rocky paths toward their uncertain futures, suffering racism ("They don't really want us to learn right from wrong. They just want us to behave"), homophobia ("perverts... let them move to China") and loss.
Sáenz's poetic language reflects the deep love Ari and Dante share ("He was like a heart that was beating in every pore of my body"); still, the boys fight and can be slow to reconcile, never exuding unrealistic happily-ever-after vibes. Sáenz is cognizant, too, of the discrete journeys partners must take. Ari addresses private journal entries to Dante but acknowledges the innate need to find purpose: "You're the center of my world--and that scares me because I don't want to lose myself in you." While he starts mapping a new world--cultivating relationships with his dad and previously ignored friends--Ari voices the confusion common in the transitional period before adulthood: "Happiness. What the hell did that mean?" He exemplifies the stagger-stop momentum of personal growth by weighing contradictions within himself; he understands gay activists' signs that proclaim "SILENCE = DEATH" but thinks "my silence... equals my survival." An overarching theme of diving into waters reminds that while some seas are stormy, loved ones also teach each other how to swim. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World is a joyous and heartrending exploration of grief, love and queer belonging. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer
Shelf Talker: Aristotle and Dante grapple with belonging in a world that doesn't want them in a long-awaited sequel that poetically examines loss, love, intolerance and acceptance.