Benjamín Alire Sáenz
About Benjamín Alire Sáenz
Speaking videos
Books by Benjamín Alire Sáenz
“Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World” (2021)
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
“The Inexplicable Logic of My Life” (2018)
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
“Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” (2014)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
“He Forgot to Say Goodbye” (2010)
"I mean, it's not as if I want a father. I have a father. It's just that I don't know who he is or where he is. But I have one." Ramiro Lopez and Jake Upthegrove don't appear to have much in common. Ram lives in the Mexican-American working-class barrio of El Paso called "Dizzy Land." His brother is sinking into a world of drugs, wreaking havoc in their household. Jake is a rich West Side white boy who has developed a problem managing his anger. An only child, he is a misfit in his mother's shallow and materialistic world. But Ram and Jake do have one thing in common: They are lost boys who have never met their fathers. This sad fact has left both of them undeniably scarred and obsessed with the men who abandoned them. As Jake and Ram overcome their suspicions of each other, they begin to move away from their loner existences and realize that they are capable of reaching out beyond their wounds and the neighborhoods that they grew up in. Their friendship becomes a healing in a world of hurt. San Antonio Express-News wrote, "Benjamin Alire Sáenz exquisitely captures the mood and voice of a community, a culture, and a generation"; that is proven again in this beautifully crafted novel.
“Carry Me Like Water” (2005)
This immensely moving novel confronts divisions of race, gender, and class, fusing together the stories of people who come to recognize one another from former lives they didn't know existed — or that they tried to forget. Diego, a deaf-mute, is barely surviving on the border in El Paso, Texas. Diego's sister, Helen, who lives with her husband in the posh suburbs of San Francisco, long ago abandoned both her brother and her El Paso roots. Helen's best friend, Lizzie, a nurse in an AIDS ward, begins to uncover her own buried past after a mystical encounter with a patient. With Carry Me Like Water, Benjamin Alire Sáenz unfolds a beautiful story about hope and forgiveness, unexpected reunions, an expanded definition of family, and, ultimately, what happens when the disparate worlds of pain and privilege collide.
At a glanceBenjamín Alire Sáenz
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