The Secrets of the Universe

[Isis]

I want to quote this entire book, but that wouldn't make any sense, now would it?

I will add some quotes to this because I didn't have any sticky notes to mark them up, and I'd like to read them from time to time.

My favorite passage from this book, well, one of them, is:

"Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer morning could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder."

WOW.

Just wow.

The imagery and the emotion and just everything about that passage. I read it a good ten times.

This book made me laugh. I laughed so hard, so much, so freely. When I didn't laugh, I smiled. I loved the characters.

Aristotle had such a beautiful and I mean BEAUTIFUL development. He started out as this small, kind of streetboy loner dude who just wanted to be left alone. By the end of the story, he was a grown man. He was strong, both physically and mentally. He was open-minded. He was happier. HE WAS HAPPIER. I wanted him to be happy. I fucking needed him to be happy. I don't know how much I've felt like him. It made me angry seeing him wasting his time being sad and lonely, and all I could see was myself. I loved his evolution. He is important to me. So much.

Dante is a special little gem in my life. I want to keep him and never ever let him go. I loved him from the moment he said "Allergies." But the line that truly made me fall for him was "And what would you do without her kisses?" I mean come on! Sweetheart, you're giving me diabetes. And I don't mean that sarcastically at all. He was the sweetest, the greatest, the most brilliant guy in the universe. I'm pretty sure he described himself as such in one chapter. Dante was full of life and smiles, and he had nothing but love to offer. He had more than that, actually. He had truths. He loved being blunt about things. I loved that. So much.

Most of all? I loved the way the Mexican culture was portrayed. Everything was spot on. I can say that. I'm Mexican. I kept reading this phrase "...fell in love with..." when referring to objects or people or pets (well, the one pet. Legs. Such a cutie). Anyway, I couldn't help but smile every time I read that. Maybe to some people it might seem dramatic. But I really hope that's not the case. In fact, my family says that a lot. I remember it was our phrase. We were so passionate about things we liked that we couldn't just say "I like this," or "I like this a lot" or even "I love this." No. We had to say "I fell in love with this!" We said it with conviction. No matter how small it was.

I feel like that's a Mexican thing, and I was glad to see it there often.

The parents. Oh God. What a lovely set of parents. And guess what? None of them divorced. Miracles do happen. I didn't have a hard time believing this scenario, though. I love that both sets of parents were madly in love. I love that Ari and Dante were both crazy about their parents. I love that they discovered who their parents were, more than they had before.

___________

"I sat up on my bed and ran my fingers over the scars on my legs. Scars. A sign that you had been hurt. A sign that you had healed.

Had I been hurt?

Had I healed?

Maybe we just lived between hurting and healing. Like my father. I think that's where he lived. In that in-between space. In that ecotone. My mother, too, maybe. She'd locked my brother somewhere deep inside of her. And now she was trying to let him out."

_____________

The whole ecotone thing was my favorite. That whole transition, from teenager to adult. It's a significant change. You literally discover your body, your own mind. It's incredible. I feel like a fucking philosopher. Aristotle thinks he's not a philosopher like his namesake, but he is. He really is.

I fucking adored the way the friendship between Aristotle and Dante was dealt with. I fucking loved that. So much. Honestly, I knew Dante loved Aristotle, and I knew he loved him as a friend, and I was sure he loved him deeply. But you know what my favorite thing was? That Dante was never shy about his feelings. He never felt ashamed to love Aristotle. And I'm not saying this because they're both boys. That is irrelevant right now. What I'm getting at is that loving a person takes a whole lot of courage, and it's no easy task. And being open about it, being so blunt about it with that person from the start, that is just incredible. I'm in awe. I have a lot to learn from Dante. A lot of people do. A lot of fictional characters do as well. I mean, seriously. Dante is my darling.

I related a lot with Ari, mentally. And with Dante, emotionally. I have read various stories about unrequited love. A lot. I've been in one myself. I got the feeling that this was another one of those, and maybe it was for a time. I was ready to cry over Dante, and to cry over me. I don't know, this book had a lot of criers, they made me welcome the tears. But the way Dante dealt with this whole thing just deserves a fucking standing ovation.

They were just two boys. Who met at a pool. Who became best friends. Who shared most of their secrets. Who came up with stories about people on the bus. Who read poetry. Who struggled with their identities. Who loved their parents. Who tried new things. Who felt new things. Who loved in different ways.

Aristotle and Dante discovered the secrets of the universe. And it was wonderful.

[Isis]

I don't think Ari thought that the secrets of the universe ended with him falling in love. I don't think Dante does either.

I think that Ari realized a very big thing about himself and one huge secret of the universe with realizing he was in love with his best friend. He isn't going to stop figuring out the mysteries of life. He had always loved Dante, and yet he realized there was more to life. Same goes for Dante.

Yes, Ari loves him. Yes, it matters. It matters a lot in the end, in that one moment on the bed of his old red truck. But that isn't the last secret. And he knows this. All throughout the book, he had so many blindfolds, and he didn't know how to let go of his fears and angst and pain with them all. And I think that in this particular part of his life, in that last chapter, he'd finally removed the last of his blindfolds. These are the things that he'd wanted to find out at the beginning of the story.

Now, the story goes on (at least I think so) and Ari and Dante go on. And there will be other obstacles and secrets and lies and pain, as well as positive things. They will become independent, and they will continue having adventures. They will continue learning more about themselves as well as each other.

But in the end, in that one moment, Ari has discovered it all. The next day? He'll have to face new challenges. There will be more. I think it was the perfect ending. It left on a good note. Ari was happy. Maybe he wouldn't be this happy all the time, but he had learned to be happy and to be himself.

I'm sure that the author's point wasn't to make people think falling in love was the ultimate secret of the universe. I just think that he wanted the reader to understand that the characters were happy now, after all the pain and challenges in their way. I think he wanted to wrap everything up beautifully, and offer closure to those like me who find it hard to leave the story behind.

At least you can now think back and remember that in the end, even the most broken of people find ways out of the dark holes they keep falling into. They find refugee in their families and friends.