“I think every parent has some moments where they say to themselves,if I could take my child’s pain away and make it mine, I would make it mine. But I have no right to take your pain away, because it’s yours”

Finished this book on the dawning of my 18th birthday! I find this to be so fitting, because of the many things that I find this book to be about.

When I read this book, there were several topics able to be conveyed into several messages and themes to the readers: Grief and Loss, Self-Discovery, Love and Compassion, Race and Identity, and one of the most obvious ones being sexuality. The topic that stood out to me most, however, was healing.

Aristotle, and all the characters in this book, experience pain in one way or another. Pain is universal- it’s what makes us human. We all hurt, and we all need to learn how to heal from this pain. This Bildungsroman of sorts has Ari growing up learning to heal from pain, despite the repetitive painful experiences that he deals with. But he also learns that those around him suffer, and he can help them heal, and he can allow them to help him heal.

I’ll always be coming back to this book, because I felt myself healing and I felt like I was rediscovering myself page by page, word by word of this book. I loved the first book; I felt as if the first book were an imperfect perfection. I somehow loved this book even more. But I learned a lot from this book, about the universe and myself. I’m grateful to the author, and I’m grateful to Aristotle and Dante. We’re all still growing.

More specifics on things I enjoyed:
~Ari’s personal growth throughout the book
~The collection of short scenes (I feel like people usually don’t like this, and i typically don’t. The book does feel like a montage at times, but somehow, it works for me. I think it’s because this sort of structure makes it feel like Ari’s diary or journal, thus making the story more personal and connected to Ari, the narrator)
~Love is awkward. Talking about your emotions is awkward. I’m glad this book can convey that.
~I just think the writing in this book is very beautiful. I did find the style of writing to be quite different from the first book, but i didn’t mind that at all.
~Ari is the protagonist, but there’s lots of subplots about other characters (friends, family, etc.). Ari comes to love or hate many of them, but through all of them Ari learns many valuable lessons. I think it helps him realize that he’s not the only person who feels emotions, who has needs and wants. Obviously he knows this, but sometimes it takes a moment to realize that (almost) everyone you meet is a person doing their best, trying their hardest, and just trying to make it through.

“Sometimes you did discover all the secrets of the universe in someone else’s hand. Sometimes that hand belonged to your father”

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World - Likewise Book Reviews

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