Benjamin Alire Sáenz

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shortly after her death. Sáenz friend’s intervened after a few months and sent him to rehab to heal (Ballí). His novel, Last Night I Sang to the Monster, addresses the time the protagonist, Zach, spends in rehab and introduces characters that deal with problems similar to others Sáenz has encountered in his life.

Sáenz mexican heritage is represented in all of his novels, as many of them take place in El Paso, Texas or Juarez, Mexico; two places he has spent a considerable amount of his life in. Sáenz uses spanish phrases and honorifics in his books using Tio and Tia in loo of Uncle and Aunt and as the catholic-church-lady friends of his mother, as Ari refers to them, pinch at his cheeks and tell him “Ay que muchacho tan guapo. Te pareces tu papa” (Aristotle and Dante, 9), meaning ‘oh, such a handsome boy, you look like your papa’. Ramiro’s mother attends mass on saturdays and sundays whereas Ramiro is more of a only-attends-once-a-week kind of Catholic (He Forgot, 265), as the majority of mexicans are catholic.

They say to write what you know, and Sáenz does just that; smoothly incorporating his loving mother, relationship with drugs and his upbring in traditional mexican-american catholic family. Sáenz’s characters are human and relatable and have occasionally complicated relationships with their families, much like the people who might pick up the book. Sáenz writes through the main characters’ thoughts, so you only know as much as they do and are able to experience the story as they do.

Works Cited

Ballí, Cecilia. "The Passion of Benjamin Sáenz - Texas Monthly." Texas Monthly. Texas Monthly, 15 July 2013. Web. 13 May 2016.

"Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Cinco Puntos Press | Independent Book Publisher." Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Cinco Puntos Press | Independent Book Publisher. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.

"Benjamin Alire Sáenz." Benjamin Alire Sáenz. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.

Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. New York: Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2012. Print.

Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. He Forgot to Say Goodbye. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Print.