Letter for Benjamin Alire Saenz

 Dear Benjamin,


    I recently finished your novel, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I felt it was an incredibly rich and lively coming of age story that depicts two boys rarely represented in American young adult literature. I want to first off congratulate you on your achievement with this book. And second tell you how this book helped me to further discover myself. While I'm not entirely like any of the character in. the book, their lifelike quality still helped me to learn about other people views and understand the world a little bit better.

My Biggest question for you having finished the book is while Aristotle and Dante? Do their personalities have something to do with the philosophers Dante and Aristotle? Could the names just have likely been flipped around Ari being named Dante? I noticed that with on of your children's books your main character was named Octavio, I feel like this was a homage to Octavio Paz. But perhaps I will never no. Thank you for the good reads.

Sincerely,

Lane

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