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A review by birdwatching
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
3.0
Beautiful, intense but problematic.
TL;dr below but in short I agree almost entirely with this mixed review
http://andyquan.com/book-review-andre-acimans-call-me-by-your-name/
I'm conflicted. I read this after having seen the gorgeously shot movie and on audio (Armie Hammer extremely problematic human but it has to be said very good narrator), which I think is the best possible way to first read this book. The opening half of the book with the simmering sexual tension and frustration and the absolute overwhelming and all consuming infatuation Elio has is really well done. I believed his voice and it resonates as true to intense teenage love, particularly queer love that often has to be conducted in a coded and hinted way. However, I really did not appreciate some of the end part of the novel particularly the long digression of a poet who was weirdly Orientalist, talking about a sexual encounter with a Thai trans identifying person. I understand it was probably supposed to be about how we connect as humans across boundaries but it missed the mark for me and was uncomfortable. Also as others have said there is a rape metaphor in the peach scene which I hated as well. So I had to deduct stars for those parts. The film meanwhile doesn't feature these things and is well worth the watch, for Timothee Chalmet's acting alone.
TL;dr below but in short I agree almost entirely with this mixed review
http://andyquan.com/book-review-andre-acimans-call-me-by-your-name/
I'm conflicted. I read this after having seen the gorgeously shot movie and on audio (Armie Hammer extremely problematic human but it has to be said very good narrator), which I think is the best possible way to first read this book. The opening half of the book with the simmering sexual tension and frustration and the absolute overwhelming and all consuming infatuation Elio has is really well done. I believed his voice and it resonates as true to intense teenage love, particularly queer love that often has to be conducted in a coded and hinted way. However, I really did not appreciate some of the end part of the novel particularly the long digression of a poet who was weirdly Orientalist, talking about a sexual encounter with a Thai trans identifying person. I understand it was probably supposed to be about how we connect as humans across boundaries but it missed the mark for me and was uncomfortable. Also as others have said there is a rape metaphor in the peach scene which I hated as well. So I had to deduct stars for those parts. The film meanwhile doesn't feature these things and is well worth the watch, for Timothee Chalmet's acting alone.