He also learns that he is attracted to boys and whilst he is relatively at ease with this, he is worried about disappointing his parents. It is a tumultuous year for them both: Dante at first loves all that Chicago has to offer, the bright lights of the big city, but soon misses El Paso and his friend. This part of the book is mainly narrated by Ari so we know what is happening with him through the first person. They write to each other, or rather, Dante writes and Ari receives. The boys are separated for a year when Dante’s father takes up a posting at a university in Chicago. The accident also brings the boys’ parents together and a process of transformation for both families begins.
This results in several injuries to himself. Their bond is sealed when Ari saves Dante’s life in a freak road accident. Neither finds it particularly easy to make friends, but they see qualities in each other that perhaps their peers miss. The novel is set in the 1980s.ĭespite their differences, the two boys develop a close bond. Also, Ari’s father is a Vietnam veteran, a closed man, unable to talk about his war experiences. Ari has an older brother whom he has not seen since he was four years old because he is in prison, for reasons he does not know and which his family never discusses. Ari is the fourth and youngest child of somewhat more troubled parents. He is bright, quirky, bookish and artistic. The two are very different characters: Dante is the only child of academic parents. Ari cannot swim so Dante offers to teach him. Dante Quintana and Aristotle (Ari) Mendoza are two Mexican-American teenage boys who meet at a swimming pool where they live in El Paso, Texas.
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