Hearth and Pages: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

“My mother and father held hands.

I wonder what that was like, to hold someone’s hand.

I bet you could sometimes find all of the mysteries in the universe

in someone’s hand.”

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe tells a story about Dante, an angry, loner teenage boy who meets Dante, another loner, but also a know-it-all teenage boy. When they first meet each other at a swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as they spend the whole summer together, they discover that they share a special kind of friendship—the kind of friendship that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And through their friendship, Ari and Dante will learn the truth and secrets about themselves, and about the kind of people they want to be.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is one of the most beautiful coming of age book I’ve ever read/listen to. There are a lot of moments that feels so honest, organic and real. This book doesn’t really has a plot, but it’s actually one thing that makes me amazed. A book without plot used to be hard for me to digest, since most of them tend to be dragging so hard and ended up bored me. Surprisingly, even though there are some parts that are a bit dragging, this book didn’t bored me at all. This book was written so beautifully and tells a real issue that I can relate to my teenage self in the past. Some people might disagree with me on this, but this book give me the same vibes as watching Boyhood, Short Term 12 and Before Sunrise, and I love it.

Though many consider this book as romance, I don’t think that romance was the most important thing in this book. Like other coming of age books, this book tells a story about kids finding out their sexuality and identity. And the most important thing is the story of teenagers learning about the complexity of life and their relationships with other human beings. How they learn about society and worldview and how all these things shaped them. That being said, I do love the romance in this book. It’s just flows naturally, you know from the beginning that it was there, but it wasn’t rush and forced. The romance flourish in just a right and beautiful pace for me.

The one thing that makes me pluck one star from this book is the ending. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ending, it was lovely and also a bit bittersweet in some parts, which I really like. But I feel the last couple chapters felt really rushed. When I reach the end, I remember thinking, “Wait, this is the last chapter?” But after all it was a great read, and I love it.

This book is also the first full audiobook for me. When I read that there’s an audiobook prompt on Pop Sugar Reading Challenge this year, I was set on Percy Jackson and the Olympian series or The Raven Cycle series because everyone recommended that. But then one day, I saw that Lin-Manuel Miranda narrated this book, and as his fans I feel like I need to come out and come up to Lin. Besides, I have it on my ebook reader since three years ago, and I feel like I need to read it before it becomes a movie. So I made an audible account and purchase the audiobook.

I don’t have much experience with audiobooks, but I think Lin did a really good job narrating this book. I can distinguish every character really well, I honestly think he was not only narrated the book, he acted well as the characters too. And the way Lin read it, I feel like someone tells a really beautiful story to me. Listening to it gave the same feelings as when your best friends have a long pleasant talk with you, or when your parents or older family members tell you their exciting experience in life that leaves you amazed at the end. That being said, I have to come clean and admit that I accidentally fall asleep twice and accidentally finished the audiobook twice too. Not because I’m bored, but because I listened to it when I was so tired, and the story was so comforting and it was so heartwarming that I fell asleep.

Overall, I highly recommended this book. I think I’m going to reread the book in printed copy some times this year. It was one of the most beautiful book I ever read, with beautiful story, beautiful characters, also beautiful, poetic and philosophical narration. The man who narrated the audiobook also has a beautiful soul with many great talents, so I definitely recommend the audiobook as well.