Words To Live By
Author and artist Benjamin Alire Saenz, surrounded by his books and paintings in his El Paso home. Photo by Alfredo Corchado
Life is crazy-busy for Benjamin Alire Saenz. The sequel to his acclaimed “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” sits atop the New York Times bestseller list, while LiN-Manuel Miranda works on a star-studded movie version of the landmark young adult novel
Benjamin Alire Saenz can’t stop writing. Nor does he want to, not anytime soon.
Writing helps him breathe, he says, and it’s his weapon in facing down a sense of loneliness made worse during the coronavirus pandemic. He’s now reveling in his creation of characters who’ll live on forever, like Aristotle and Dante.
Disclaimer here: Saenz and I are long-time friends. Over time we’ve grown close enough that I call him Ben. Maybe close enough to where he tolerates me calling him “cabroncito,” the off-color, multi-function slang derived from “billygoat,” which describes Saenz’s loveable restlessness.
After some chasing, I finally caught up to Saenz, first at a coffee shop.
We continued the conversation later, at his house in central El Paso. He knows we’re meeting; we’ve wrangled over when to finish the interview. Still, he saunters in, an hour late, muttering something about a “strange night.” But otherwise avoids excuses. He laughs mischievously when I break into a profanity-laced greeting.
Truth be told, Saenz is at the top of his game, so he no longer needs to be anywhere on time. He says he’s at “the highlight of my career. … But I’m no diva. I just work my ass off.”
In his house we end up waist-deep in boxes that hold his heralded young adult novel, “Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World.” It’s the sequel to the smash success, “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.” Saenz is pointing to 1,800 or so books piled in his living room, in his bedroom, and in the office -- all waiting for his autograph.
“This is incredible, cabroncito,” I say.
“And you know what? I haven’t changed one bit,” he answers, bursting into his signature laugh that fills the room and sets his dogs, Chuy and Rain, into spasms of yelping and running in circles.
Stacks of boxes hold Saenz’s new book, which is now at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. All these copies await his autograph. Photo by Alfredo Corchado
On a roll
Born and raised in a small farming town near Las Cruces, New Mexico, Saenz now calls El Paso and Ciudad Juarez home. Like a true border resident, he’s wired in a way that his body and spirit hardly notice the international boundary line, or have a need for it. It’s in this borderland that Saenz, a prolific writer and winner of the 2013 PEN Faulkner award for the book “Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club,” has found inspiration in a career that spans more than three decades.
That book was supposed to mark the pinnacle of his career, Saenz says. But then he created Aristotle and Dante and his life took a turn. The novel, published in 2014, has won numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award. This year, Time magazine called it one of the best YA books of all time. The film adaptation is underway; its cast includes Eugenio Derbez, Eva Longoria and newcomers Max Pelayo as Aristotle and Reese Gonzalez as Dante. The team of producers includes Derbez, Kyra Sedgwick and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also voiced the audio-book versions, including the sequel.
Publisher Grupo Planeta reportedly paid six figures for the worldwide Spanish rights. It’s unheard of for a Mexican-American author, Saenz says, “and it tells me we’ve finally made it in Mexico and beyond.”
“Well. Let’s start there,” I say, sitting across from Saenz at an outdoor café with a mural of a Mexican man with an accordion and a white sombrero. As I set up our long-planned interview for palabra, Saenz pauses to smell his coffee and savor a glazed donut. The autumn morning, the tree leaves yielding to a golden hue, and Saenz’s devil-may-care grin frame what, for me, is a perfect morning on the border.
The interview spanned two venues, and covered a lot of ground, so palabra presents here the highlights, edited for clarity and brevity.
The second book about Aristotle and Dante hits bookstores as production gets underway on a film version of the original. Photo by Alfredo Corchado
“I’m no diva. I just work my ass off.”
Corchado: Ben, you’ve written so many highly acclaimed books. You’re the first Latino winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, for “Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club,” your ode to your beloved Ciudad Juarez, across the border in Mexico. So why is the sequel to Aristotle and Dante, now your new “highlight?”
Saenz: Every writer can dream this, right? And we always laugh at ourselves and say it’s never going to happen. And then we reach what we think is a peak in our career. And then we write more. We write books because we need to, because we feel a sense of responsibility, a duty. I had enough readers who read my books, my poetry or novels. That was my career, I thought. I touched some lives. I have no complaints. You sell enough books to live to write another day. And it's been a wonderful career. It's been a privilege.
Corchado: But. ...?
Saenz: Literary awards are wonderful. The Faulkner was wonderful, but it didn’t sell me a lot of books but still, that was great. I thought it was a way to cap a career.
Corchado: You’re talking about Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, published by Cinco Puntos Press?
Saenz: Yes, that’s right.
Corchado: But then “Aristotle and Dante” comes along.
Saenz: And you know what? It was a slow burn. The first week of its publication it sold a whopping 11 copies. It’s a miracle the book was alive. And it still sells and sells, like nothing I’ve written before. The first one is still selling.
But here’s the lesson. That’s not a book that was created or sold by a marketing machine. It just kept selling more and more because people loved the book. This was all sold through word of mouth, hand-to-hand, by kids, teachers, educators, and librarians. Nine years later it’s still selling, like never before.
It's special because it really touched people, and maybe that was the key. It was written at the right time. Sometimes, timing is everything. OK, timing is always everything. That book hit the stands at the very moment that this country was having, for the first time I think, a public discussion about gay marriage and gay engagement, gay society, and it was like a good moment. Sometimes, if you write a book about an issue that's happening today, it's already too late.
Corchado: You’ve got to anticipate what's coming?
Saenz: Yeah, that was the magic of “Aristotle and Dante.” I won all these awards, and that really helped put the book out there. I got a nice push, but nine years later it's selling even more because it touched something in readers. And it's a kind of crossover book, in many ways.
Corchado: Wait. What do you mean: crossover?
Saenz: Trans people sent me letters. Gay men, women, kids, Hispanics, Anglos, people of all colors. Straight people. And parents who care. And flawed, flawed parents, but parents who care, and love their sons. That's not generally what happens with young adult novels. So this was kind of a game-changer, the kind of book that was truly different. I mean I’m talking about a real crossover.
Corchado: So now comes the hard part: How do you top that?
Saenz: Well, the sequel is always going to live in the shadow of the original. That's just the way it is. But the sequel is a better book because it's more real. The first book was about two people discovering each other, and it's a small, intimate book, more inward-looking. The sequel deals with the world they live in. One of the things I didn't even mention in the first book was AIDS. The sequel takes place in the middle of the AIDS pandemic and the hatred that comes with that.
Corchado: Speaking of pandemics, you wrote this book during another pandemic.
Saenz: Yes, that’s right. I wrote the majority of it during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, because of the pandemic, I changed the whole book.
Corchado: How so?
Saenz: Well, I had a tough time writing this book because I was so alone. I felt like I was competing against myself.
Corchado: You need to explain that.
Saenz: Well, you know the first book. Everybody loves it. Everybody says it’s my best book. That doesn't mean that I think it’s my best book. So I had to go out and compete against myself and write what I think is really my best book.
Corchado: Tell me the new storyline, and what you think makes it better than the first book.
Saenz: The first one ends with the characters Aristotle and Dante falling in love with each other. Falling in love is easy. But just try staying in love. That’s what this book is all about. How do you stay in love in the context of, back then, having to be in the closet. Remember, they’re in high school. They can’t come out. You can today, but not back then. I’m very happy with what I wrote, and, in comparison, the sequel sold more than 13,000 copies in the first week.
Corchado: So now do you finally get to relax? Enjoy your much-deserved success?
Saenz: No, now I need to write. I’m writing a book of poetry, and a nonfiction book.
Corchado: And another sequel? Will we see Aristotle and Dante, book three?
Saenz: I don’t think so. One can only hope. OK, maybe. But maybe not. I have other books I want to write, other than Aristotle and Dante, because other books I’ve written now live in the shadows. I have a lot more to say.
Corchado: So let’s talk about the movie.
Saenz: It’s a project that’s been in the works for almost six years now. I’m excited because when the director, Aitch Alberto, decided to make this movie about Latinos, we talked about how they always cast anybody but Mexican Americans. So what does she do? She casts all Mexican Americans and one Mexican. Aristotle and Dante are played by newcomers. Eva Longoria, who plays Dante’s mother, is Mexican American. And then we have the one Mexican, Ernesto Derbez, who plays Ari’s father. Kevin Alejandro plays Dante’s father and Veronica Falcon plays Ari’s mother. I love her because I wanted a Latina Anne Bancroft and Veronica is perfect. Her voice is wonderful. Really rich. It’s all true to the book and that’s important. That just doesn’t happen very often.
Corchado: And Lin Manuel Miranda?
Saenz: Remember, it was a little easier back then. Lin-Manuel Miranda wasn’t always Lin-Manuel Miranda. Before Hamilton, someone had suggested to him that he read the book. And he just loved it. Ever since then, he’s been supportive in every way. We had a hard time putting a movie thing together and it kept falling apart because we couldn’t secure the money. Then Lin-Manuel got Eugenio Derbez and Eva Longoria involved and the money just came together. And I love how he gave the boys, the two new actors who play Aristotle and Dante, a lovely pep talk at the beginning of production.
Corchado: Well Benjamin, mi cabroncito, where do you go from here? Will you ever stop writing?
Saenz: Hell no. I just want to keep writing. I have no time to relax. I also want to paint.
Corchado: But you’re sixty…
Saenz: Seven. Sixty-seven.
Corchado: You look great, for 67.
Saenz (Laughing): Let me put it to you this way, I look better than I have a right to.
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Photo by David Suro
Alfredo Corchado is the award-winning Mexico/Border Correspondent for The Dallas Morning News. He’s the author of “Midnight in Mexico” and “Homelands.”