Currently, I'm reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. It is a very special book. If you enjoy the novels of David Levithan, you should definitely check it out! Or if you haven't read anything by David Levithan yet, but you love poetic, intelligent YA books, Aristotle and Dante is for you. (In case you should have anything against it, it's an LGBT novel.)
Usually, I don't check out authors. Not even if their books become a favourite of mine, unless - of course - if I feel compelled to let the author know how much I enjoyed his or her book. This time, I checked out the author, because both Aristotle and Dante enjoy the poetry of William Carlos Williams (I've mentioned my connection with him in this post.) and Dante mentions the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper to Aristotle, which I love at least as much as WCW's poetry.
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| Found it here. |
So, I decided to look up the author and it turned out, that he's also a poet. It was quite obvious that I must include him in my author a-z challenge. I picked his poem, To the Desert from his 1995 collection, Dark and Perfect. The desert of course has also a significant role in the novel.
Here are my favourite lines:
"...You blow a breeze and brand
Your breath into my mouth. You reach—then bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new"
However, if you read the novel, you'll see that these initial lines are the most closely related to the book:
"I came to you one rainless August night.
You taught me how to live without the rain.
You are thirst and thirst is all I know.
You are sand, wind, sun, and burning sky,"
Do you enjoy poetic novels? Does your favourite art or artist get mentioned in books you read? Do you love poems about the desert? Let me know in the Comments below. (Mind you, I set all comments to moderate, so it may take a while to appear.)
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