The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
I enjoyed approximately half of this book. Read on and I'll tell you why.
Sal is beginning his senior year and he's dealing with a surprising new personality trait. When confronted with a ignorant classmate calling Sal's adoptive father a "fag", he deals out a swift punch to knock the confronter down. This punch surprises Sal as much as his classmates, and Sal starts introspecting, which he will continue to do for the rest of the book.
Until he figures out where his newfound anger is coming from, he has his friends and family to support him. Sal lives with his adopted father who is both Mexican-American, gay, and caring, and Sal's two friends take prominent roles as well with Fito, an intelligent and hardworking guy from a terrible family, and Sam, a spunky girl with a terrible mother who calls Sal "Sally" until he earns his given name. These characters and their relationships carry the book which is less about specific events and conflicts, and more about emotions, loss, and family.
I was excited to see what events would unfold, but in 445 pages, not much did. There was one exception when a twist occurred in the first half that seemed likely to alter the course of the story, but then a nearly identical event happen again, then again. And the conversations between the characters began to go in circles, stuck in a time loop. The characters and conflicts reached their peaks early then went stagnant.
The biggest disappointment of this book was how bright with possibilities it was at the start and then how stale it became. This may have been due to the main characters being too flawless and mostly free from consequence. Sal's punches don't have any lasting impact, and Sam, who was introduced as a bit of a wild child and always chasing after bad boys, has one ambiguous, negative experience then changes into someone complacent, losing much of the fire that made her personality so compelling in the first place.
Perhaps the issue of this book could have been resolved if it had been condensed down by half. There was too much space and not enough happening to keep a reader engaged and allow for the repetition and stagnation that stopped me from ultimately enjoying this story. Better luck next time.
