credit: simonandschuster.com
It's hard being a teenager. As this week's book says, you are stuck in between being a child and an adult. As my Granny Wendy would say, "you know just enough to get kicked out of Eden." Trying new things, discovering what you like and what you don't, getting forced into confrontations exterior and exterior. Making and losing friends. Lovers. Ari and Dante find themselves at this point in their lives, and we follow Ari as a narrator struggling against… everything when like quicksand its sometimes better to just let go and live.
Problem is, there's a whole lot of other people on this planet and many of them never grappled with who they are. They strike out at different. They try to control. They give up and decide to drown and offer to bring you with them and some even make that option appealing. Violence and horror and simple accidents can derail and form you. As Ari says at one point, (paraphrasing) scars show you were hurt and also that you healed.
Reading this book was hard. When I was a teenager, I had a friend that I believe loved me in a way I could not reciprocate. I wish they had been able to share that with me and that I had been the type of person who wanted to talk those feelings through. My memory is faulty, but I know I did harm by inaction, by not having the empathetic response to act. Even have a conversation. I did my experimenting and plenty of it, but the stupid kid I was walked that path alone. Hell, I'm in my 40s now and romantic love confuses the hell out of me.
I found myself at some point hoping characters would be a certain way so their life might be easier, and I don't know if that's hindsight or wish fulfillment on my part. I wanted Ari and Dante to be okay, and that's the sign of a great book. Check it out.
Characters
Aristotle "Ari" - narrator, 15 years old at the start
Dante - Ari's best friend
Liliana and Jamie - Ari's parents, school teacher and Vietnam veteran
Sam and Soledad - Dante's Parents, professor and therapist
Gina, Susie, and Charlie - school friends of Ari's
Ileana - Ari's crush
Legs - Ari's dog
Setting
late 1980s El Paso, Texas
begins in summer 1987 and continues until the end of summer 1988
Ari's and Dante's houses - general hangout and meeting place for family and the teens
Desert - where Ari goes to his special place after her gets a truck
Plot Summary
Sarcastic and angry teen Ari goes swimming one day and meets Dante, a boy that lights up all the parts of him inside where art lives. For the next year, they learn about one another, love, and the secrets that can be kept in the human heart. They survive car accidents, drinking, girls, attacks, and Ari's stubborn refusal to listen to himself about anything other than what he thinks he knows. Will their friendship survive?
Favorite Scenes
It's hard to be direct about favorite scenes because they are conversations that ebb and flow. Beautiful moments happen and are forgotten. The novel captures life so well it's hard to pinpoint the exact moments I enjoyed rather than the feelings they elicited.
The last scene is a beautiful revelation of two people coming together through shared trauma, kindness, and love. Catharsis for the entire book with a dash of hope that everything will be okay.
Ari driving with his dad and revealing old family trauma - An opening rather than a closing of the story. The information dropped here emphasizes the amount of things parents shelter their kids from and how hurtful that can be.
Ari and his parents at the kitchen table late in the book - Hard to accept this as a favorite scene because it feels contradictory. After the whole book of his parents not talking about the things that bother them, they then open up to who they believe Ari to be and his relationships. Truth in parenting again.
Discussion Questions
Have you ever had a friend? What's it like?
What was your first car? If you have never had a car, why not, loser?
What was your first job? Did you think "I could do this forever"? If so, had you been hit in the head with something hard?
Did your family trauma affect you or did they all bottle it down until one Thanksgiving Uncle Chet threw the stuffing through the window and cried about someone named "Poor Eric" while looking at the small hill in the backyard where your grandmother leaves flowers and tells you not to play trucks there?
Have you ever kissed someone? What's it like?
Join the Friends of the Banned Library!
If you want this content early or just want to support the library, please consider becoming a Friend of the Banned Library: Patreon.com/bannedlibrary