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carlycormier_'s review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
The exploration of the psyche that Aciman takes you on is… just wow. This book captures a snapshot of all young people’s lives when they find themselves in their first relation/situation-ship that is all-encompassing, passionate, maddening, and the intricacies of figuring out yourself and life. You truly feel like you are Elio experiencing turbulent mental and emotional processes as he navigates his relationship with Oliver, his family, and, most importantly, himself. This narrative perspective opens a window into the unspoken depths of our minds. Elio has many racing, and racy, thoughts that we don't typically vocalize, which makes the book feel almost intrusive and voyeuristic at times.
"He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dreammaking and stranger remembrance."
Part Four will rip your heart out and put it back just so it can do it all over again. The hazy, dream-like visuals and intense inner-monologues of remembering a life that equally feels distant and unreal, yet fresh, are the gems of this book. Memory is an additional, unspoken character woven through the storyline and the dialogue with billowy (wink wink) and effortless ease.
Palpable, visceral, intoxicating, bellissimo.
I have a feeling - I know, rather - that I will be thinking about this book for a long time. To add more to this review would do this book a major injustice. So, just read it for yourself and feel all of its beauty first-hand.
"He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dreammaking and stranger remembrance."
Palpable, visceral, intoxicating, bellissimo.
I have a feeling - I know, rather - that I will be thinking about this book for a long time. To add more to this review would do this book a major injustice. So, just read it for yourself and feel all of its beauty first-hand.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Adult/minor relationship
singalana's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Tämä kirja herätti ristiriitaisia tunteita, koska kokemus jakautui pääasiassa kolmeen tunnetilaan. Kirja kertoo, kuinka yhtenä kesänä 17-vuotias Elio rakastuu itseään seitsemän vuotta vanhempaan kesävieraaseen, Oliveriin.
Kirjan alkupuoliskolla seuraamme Elion suorastaan pakkomielteistä ihastumista Oliveriin. Seuraa kiihkeä (ja hyvin graafinen) romanssi, ja sen jälkeen katkeransuloinen loppu, koska kesä on lopussa ja Oliverin täytyy mennä.
Kirjassa kuvattiin elävästi kesää, Italiaa ja ihmisiä. Silti en päässyt päähenkilön kanssa oikein sinuiksi, ja osa kirjan sisällöstä sai aikaan vaivaantuneisuuden tunteita. Olisin halunnut tutustua enemmän muihin hahmoihin, etenkin Elion isään, mutta näkökulma pidetään hyvin tiiviisti Eliossa ja hänen suhteessan Oliverin.
Suuren osan kirjasta vietämmekin Elion pään sisällä, siinä mitä hän ajattelee, suunnittelee ja muistelee. Hänen suhteensa Oliveriin on hyvin elävä, ja lopussa katkeransuloinen. Silti en voi antaa kirjalle tämän korkeampaa arvosanaa, sillä jotain jäi puuttumaan, ehkä jokin lopullinen yhteys hahmon ja lukijan välillä, jotain sellaista, joka olisi saanut lukijan rakastamaan Oliveria yhtä paljon kuin Elio.
Tämän lisäksi loppua kohti kirjassa on paljon lainauksia italiaksi, ja itse koin ne hieman turhaksi.
Tämän lisäksi loppua kohti kirjassa on paljon lainauksia italiaksi, ja itse koin ne hieman turhaksi.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Antisemitism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Infidelity, and Vomit
savvy999's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moments of lush beautiful prose, but ultimately devastating in its candor and use of memory. I have a lot more to say about the complexities of the subject matter— it’s most specific and reiterated criticism—and it’s deployment. In the end it did not feel like a love story it felt like a story of loss a permeating, unbalanced love and loss that takes a lifetime to get over. Whether or not the author meant to show the imbalances, the tilting house that young obsession and love bring is maybe not clear but I am taking from this book an understanding of the deeply felt and the skewed all in the same breath.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Antisemitism
stormeno's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Drug use, Antisemitism, Death, and Death of parent
chelseeaa's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
it was… something. for a minute you forget that there’s a seven year age gap between the two. it’s written beautifully but, i found it difficult to pick back up after i’d finished reading a couple pages. it’s a pretty but ultimately strange book filled with feet, swimming trunks and.. peaches.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Child death, and Death
chao3's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
medium-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
5.0
Beautiful language and descriptions of nature. Emotional but lighthearted story. A great summer read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
joeykills's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Cancer, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Chronic illness
lesbianlover's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
_marco_'s review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I had heard both amazing and awful things about this book, so I had to at least try to read it; I’m an empiricist.
I adored this book. At once simplistic yet poetic, Aciman’s writing conveys the complex emotions of first love (or is it something more spiritual?). First glances, growing desire, to denial, shame, guilt, followed by acceptance, friendship, romance, and all the transitional thoughts and feelings in between were rendered with such perfect clarity that I could have mistaken them for my own. Maybe they were, and this story put into words what I had never been able to do myself.
I adored this book. At once simplistic yet poetic, Aciman’s writing conveys the complex emotions of first love (or is it something more spiritual?). First glances, growing desire, to denial, shame, guilt, followed by acceptance, friendship, romance, and all the transitional thoughts and feelings in between were rendered with such perfect clarity that I could have mistaken them for my own. Maybe they were, and this story put into words what I had never been able to do myself.
He was my secret conduit to myself—like a catalyst that allows us to become who we are, the foreign body, the pacer, the graft, the patch that sends all the right impulses, the steel pin that keeps a soldier’s bone together, the other man’s heart that makes us more us than we were before the transplant.
I’ve read a lot of literary books, but Aciman’s light and airy narration is my personal favourite. Thorough psychological descriptions and minimal dialogue propel the story very well, and subtle wordplay and recurring afterthoughts create layers of meaning in every sentence. Even his descriptions of place—the Villa, Rome—are rendered in such a dreamy light that I pictured everything as if in a watercolour.
The Italy that Aciman presents to us is also beautiful in itself. I loved how real it was: this isn’t a tourist-washed view of the country, where people go about singing Pavarotti in the unrealistically clean and well-maintained streets of Rome. This is an Italy that is lived in, yet still beautiful, where people speak their dialects and cast judgement over a game of briscola in the languorous heat of summer. La Società dei Magnaccioni was a nice Roman touch.
Once again, I love the theme of nostalgia and ephemerality that sets the tone in the very beginning and punctuates the story beautifully at the end. Something about brief experiences in our youth that will come to shape the rest of our lives, like the tart taste of lemon that stays on your tongue… delicious.
I cannot recommend this book enough, especially to queer men. The more I think about this book, the more I can say it’s my favourite out of all I’ve read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Terminal illness
While Elio and Oliver’s relationship falls under the adult/minor umbrella, it wasn’t predatory or manipulative, and it was completely consensual. The author presented it in such a way that wasn’t uncomfortable or graphic at all. While I’m still unsure as to how I feel about this aspect, I definitely wasn’t triggered in a way that affected how I experienced the core of the story.bernard_black's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
4.25
Lana Del Rey released Honeymoon so there is something fitting to listen to while you're reading this, I am convinced.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Terminal illness, Vomit, Death, and Alcohol