Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe | Book Summary

8 min readApr 8, 2021

The problem with my life is that it was someone else idea.

“When I was a boy, I used to wake up thinking the world was ending”

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe is a contemporary story of two Mexican American Gay teens struggling to identify their place in the world. It’s is a lyrical novel that revolves around the issues in family and relationships.

Beginning:

Aristotle (Ari, for short) on one end, was a struggling with loneliness, accepting his sexuality and anger from his family due to their silence on the topic of his brother’s being in a prison. Ari, who was a beautiful boy had many questions about his own universe with no answers which made him a mystery even to himself.

Ari grew up with twins’ sisters and a brother but yet, he called himself a “pseudo only child” as he was much younger than his siblings. His brother, Bernando was another mystery in his universe as everybody treated him as dead because he was in a prison. On the other end, his twin sisters treating him as a child not as a peer created more tension in the family as he has no one to share his thoughts and imagination with anyone.

Aristotle’s father served in the Vietnam war and he refused to talk about his experiences in the war. All these family secrets made Ari furious and aggressive and yet he didn’t want to share any of his secrets with the world. The only person in the family with whom he had an open relationship was his mother as she was very communicate about her life and made him feel loved and cared every time she was around.

With all this going on in Aristotle life he started believing that there were barriers between him and the world, Hence, he started keeping everything inside of him which in turns started to haunt him in his dreams.

On the other end,

Dante is a tall, handsome young man who loves poetry, philosophy and is a passionate swimmer. Dante is an aspiring artist who is also crazy about his parents. According to Dante he doesn’t fit as a proper Mexican man in terms of masculinity and inability to speak proper Spanish. He struggles with accepting his identity as he is afraid that if he marries a boy, he won’t be able to give his parents grandchildren which will disappoint them.

One Day…

Aristotle was walking into the heat of the day where the sun would have melted the blue right of the sky to go to pool for swimming. After, a while in a pool Ari hear a voice from the edge of the pool “I can teach you how to swim” Well, Ari thought if a guy was offering him swimming lesson then he would also, be someone with no life. Hence, He agreed.

They both became friends and started sharing things about themselves like what their parents do, how their relationship is with them, how they felt about discovering the secrets of the universe. Gradually, as Aristotle met Dante’s parents, he got a close look on how a family functions differently than his own family. Mr. Quintana (Dante’s Dad) was a very affectionate person towards his family. On the other side, Mrs. Quintana (Dante’s Mom) was an inscrutable person in Dante’s words that was the opposite of what he used to see at his home. As the time went by both the families started spending time together and gradually both Ari and Dante started discovering their own identity and individuality with the help of one another.

By the end of the summer, Aristotle and Dante got into an accident while playing outside Dante’s home. When Aristotle woke up, he was in the hospital where both of his legs were casted and only thing that he remembered from the incident was Dante standing in the middle of the street holding the bird with a broken wing and suddenly, a car coming up to him. In the hospital Ari’s parents were concerned for his condition and they told him that he saved Dante’s life by jumping in front of the car. To which Ari replied, “I didn’t do it on purpose” To which Dante started crying and asking for forgiveness from him.

Ari: Forgive you? For what Dante? What is there to forgive?

The entire summer Ari was taking rest while his family and Dante were taking care of him every day. Both Ari and Dante spend their summers listening to La Bamba, sketching, and reading poetry. After, summer Dante moved to Chicago for a while and they both communicating via letters and calls even though the ratio of Dante’s to Aristotle letters were 7:1 yet, their friendship grew. During this whole period Dante started to experiment with booze and kissing girls. Later, in one of his letters Dante confesses that he’d rather kiss boys than girls. On the other side, Ari’s life without Dante revolved around reading Dante’s letters, arguing with Gina and Susie (Girls from Schools), having bad dreams (about his brother and Dante), and working a part time job at The Charcoaler a burger joint.

Over the Christmas break, Ari discovers an envelope in the house that has details was about his brother “Bernardo” even though he wanted to know about him badly, but he was too afraid to open it.

Summer Begins Again,

Dante moved back to El Paso and Ari started full time job at Charcoaler. Both boys took Ari’s truck to the desert to watch the stars together. Dante tells Ari that his mother is pregnant, and he hopes that baby is a boy who likes kissing girl so that give grandchildren to his parents.

One day, Dante convinces Aristotle to kiss him, saying that it is just an experiment to know if he feels anything from kissing Ari. After the kiss, Ari claims he didn’t feel anything while Dante was upset as he felt something while kissing him, seeming to confirm that he feels for Ari. Meanwhile, Ari’s mother went to Tucson because his aunt was sick leaving Ari and his father alone for few days. On one occasion Dante tells Ari that he likes one of his co-workers at work Daniel while sitting in a truck with him in a desert.

The next morning, his father announces that his aunt had died and they both have to leave for Tucson. While in the car his father discusses about Bernardo trial which made Ari and his dad closer than ever. At the funeral, Ari realized no one from his extended family has arrived to which his mother discusses that her aunt was with a woman which the family didn’t accepted.

After the funeral they all went back to El Paso where his mother discusses about Bernardo finally and shares that something you don’t take the right decisions. After knowing the story of Bernardo killing a prostitute on a street because the prostitute was transgender. He is imprisoned for life. As, family secrets unfolds Aristotle felt more relieved and relax in accepting the secrets of his universe.

The next morning, Ari went to Dante house where his father tells him about Dante being in hospital as he was jumped. Furious Ari went to Dante’s workplace to confront Daniel to know exactly what happened that day.

Daniel reveals name of the two boys who attacked Dante and angry Ari visit one of them and starts a fight with him which lead him into trouble. At home, his parents were afraid that Ari will also turn like his brother and hence, decided to have a family meeting to describe what had happened with his brother. Later, on at Dante’s house Mr. Quintana asked Ari if he knows why Dante was jumped. Ari told him that Dante was kissing a boy and he also explained that Dante was afraid to tell them because he didn’t want to disappoint them. Mr. Quintana admits he had guessed that Dante was gay as how he looks at Ari. When Dante comes home, Daniel starts visiting him which made Ari furious because Daniel ran away while Dante was being beaten up. Dante admits Ari that while kissing Daniel he was thinking about Ari to which Ari said he needs a new head start. Daniel was left hurt and upset by Ari’s reaction.

At home Ari parents had a meeting and his father share his experience from the Vietnam war and asked Ari why he saved Dante’s life and why he was so furious at those boys who beat Dante. Ari’s father explains Ari that the thing that he is running away from would kill him until he accepts the truth. To which, Ari accept that he loves Dante and but was afraid to accept the truth. His parents reminds him that he cannot keep running from it.

At night, both the families go to bowling together from where Dante and Ari left in the truck to the desert to watch the stars. There, Ari reminds Dante about the kiss and how he said it didn’t work for him was a lie and asks Dante to kiss him again but Dante refuses, and tells him to kiss instead. Without any hesitation Ari kisses Dante, fully accepting his love for him and his own identity.

After the kiss, they relaxed, and Ari reflected that the whole time he was searching for the secrets of the universe and his own heart and body while he had all the answers with him. Ari is left wondering: “How could I have been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?

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