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nadayah's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
justinkhchen's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars
This is a tricky one to rate; part of me thoroughly appreciate Find Me for its beautiful prose and discussion on affection, but as a sequel to Call Me by Your Name, it feels insincere and reeks of cash grab.
First, the positives: André Aciman proves once again his uncanny ability at expressing heartfelt sentiments without tipping into clichés — this book is a literary goldmine for pull-quotes. I also appreciate the melancholic theme Find Me is exploring, that the time lost, and abandonment, no matter how regretful they seem at first glance, might be crucial (or even necessary) to a lasting relationship.
As a sequel, I honestly think this 'novel' (which is really a short story collection) came to fruition only to ride the success of Call Me by Your Name's film adaptation. It's evident André Aciman doesn't have anything significant to add to these characters, so we end up with 4 meandering vignettes that are very constrained in plot and scope. Even if we consider Find Me as pure fan service, it also makes the questionable decision to dedicate the longest segment to Sami (Elio's father), instead of Elio and Oliver.
Find Me should have been trimmed down and released as bonus materials accompanying Call Me by Your Name (like a special edition print), instead of its own stand-alone volume. While still worth checking out for Aciman's concise, elegant writing, Find Me is ultimately an unnecessary sequel that adds nothing to the characters we fell in love with from the original.
This is a tricky one to rate; part of me thoroughly appreciate Find Me for its beautiful prose and discussion on affection, but as a sequel to Call Me by Your Name, it feels insincere and reeks of cash grab.
First, the positives: André Aciman proves once again his uncanny ability at expressing heartfelt sentiments without tipping into clichés — this book is a literary goldmine for pull-quotes. I also appreciate the melancholic theme Find Me is exploring, that the time lost, and abandonment, no matter how regretful they seem at first glance, might be crucial (or even necessary) to a lasting relationship.
As a sequel, I honestly think this 'novel' (which is really a short story collection) came to fruition only to ride the success of Call Me by Your Name's film adaptation. It's evident André Aciman doesn't have anything significant to add to these characters, so we end up with 4 meandering vignettes that are very constrained in plot and scope. Even if we consider Find Me as pure fan service, it also makes the questionable decision to dedicate the longest segment to Sami (Elio's father), instead of Elio and Oliver.
Find Me should have been trimmed down and released as bonus materials accompanying Call Me by Your Name (like a special edition print), instead of its own stand-alone volume. While still worth checking out for Aciman's concise, elegant writing, Find Me is ultimately an unnecessary sequel that adds nothing to the characters we fell in love with from the original.
rhea_mak's review against another edition
1.0
I like his writing, but it’s crossing a border to where it’s pretentious and obnoxious. The plot is all over the place, and the theme I got from this is older men like to date people who are their kid’s age. All the characters hold no importance for fidelity and absolutely no one cares what their partner does. Oliver tell his wife he’s leaving her and she just says okay??? With no arguments or concerns??? Eliot dad falls in love and plans his entire life with a woman he met on a train a day ago, and the writer expects us to just accept it as fact. There’s a random mystery with one of Elio’s lovers where they try to figure something out to add some substance to the book i guess, but it feels like a filler and it’s oddly misplaced, but sadly it’s one of the more interesting parts. It has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the book, it just sits there. I’m starting to resent these characters that I adored in the first book. His dad was my favorite, and now i just hate him. He comes off as some sort of predator. Oliver does too, when he talks about sleeping with a man and a woman at his party who are both with their partners. ELIO’S PARTNER, MICHEL, MAKES TEA IN THE MICROWAVE!!!! There’s parts of the writing that I enjoyed so it’s not completely hopeless, where you get glimpses of what we all liked about the first book, then it goes downhill again. Mostly, it feels like Aciman just wrote about his fantasy world where he can date people young enough to be his kids and cheating is a non-existent concept. It’s just extremely disappointing.
bookschaosnart's review against another edition
2.0
I was really excited to grab this one and then I read it... I'm not sure if it was my assumptions or the fact that it felt like many of the things established in the previous novel especially with the epilogue were ignored or changed with this book. As a stand alone, I think this would have been very enjoyable and worth several discussions about how relationships are handled and evolve through this story as well as the idea of a true lover of if multiple can exist in ones lifetime. Overall it was well written and in a similar style to Call Me By Your Name, however, the content and timelines contradict each other and definitely hurt my ability to enjoy this novel.
lanalewis0's review against another edition
dnf at 30%. this was incredibly boring
siiig's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.5
bettinavanruiswijk's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful. Don't expect something similar to part 1 or the movie, but something else entirely. If you can do that, then it's another story that helps you reflect, feel and see memories and decide on how to continue from there in your own life and story.
clairezavoyna's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I didn’t like this because I began by listening to the audio book while I waited for the library to acquire a copy — I dislike audiobooks. This was amazing!
« As the French poet says, Le temps d’apprendre à vivre il est déjà trop tard, by the time we learn to live, it’s already too late. And yet there must be some small joy in finding that we are each put into a position to complete the lives of others, to close the ledger they left open and play their last card for them. What could be more gratifying than to know that it will always be up to someone else to complete and round off our life? Someone whom we loved and who loves us enough. 210,211 »
« As the French poet says, Le temps d’apprendre à vivre il est déjà trop tard, by the time we learn to live, it’s already too late. And yet there must be some small joy in finding that we are each put into a position to complete the lives of others, to close the ledger they left open and play their last card for them. What could be more gratifying than to know that it will always be up to someone else to complete and round off our life? Someone whom we loved and who loves us enough. 210,211 »
emmaandstuff's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0