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carlycormier_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
"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.
Graphic: Sexual content and Adult/minor relationship
singalana's review against another edition
- 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
Tämän lisäksi loppua kohti kirjassa on paljon lainauksia italiaksi, ja itse koin ne hieman turhaksi.
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
- 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
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Antisemitism
stormeno's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Drug use, Antisemitism, Death, and Death of parent
chelseeaa's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual content and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Child death, and Death
chao3's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
joeykills's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Cancer, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Chronic illness
lesbianlover's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexual content
_marco_'s review against another edition
- 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 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.
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
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Terminal illness, Vomit, Death, and Alcohol