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A review by dorhi
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I'm not sure I've ever read a book that has left me so baffled as to what I felt about it. I couldn't tell you if I enjoyed this book or not, and I'm not sure if it's good or not.
In 'Call Me By Your Name' we follow 17 year old Elio as he comes to terms with his attraction towards 24 year old Oliver, who is an American staying in his family home in Italy for the summer as he works on his manuscript.
Elio is a very mature character, to the point of pretentiousness often if we're to be very honest. All the characters are kind of along these lines: incredibly intellectual professors and philosophers and academics, poets. At first I really enjoyed the wordiness of the story as it seemed to partner the hot Italian summer atmosphere of the beginning of the novel. Long, hot summer days where there was nothing better to do than go for a swim or play some tennis and make sure you get a lot of rest and midafternoon naps. It was slow in the story, and it was a slow paced novel. It worked well, gelling with the slow build in tension between Elio and Oliver and their feelings for each other that they refused to confess to one another.
Then as we move on in the novel it remains verbose and slow paced when things should, in my opinion, be moving along. We're still spending a lot of time introspectively wondering if anything
has changed between Elio and Oliver until the peach scene (which is gross, and I don't find any deep meaning in it personally) and things suddenly ramp up quite a bit. This may be a norm of the romance genre and I'll confess to not having read much of it, but I found the pacing overall unsatisfactory.
Oliver as a character I found mostly unlikeable. I do think Aciman does a good job of describing people though Elio's perspective so I'm not sure I even have a good grasp on Oliver as a character because I'm not sure Elio ever truly gets him. But he read as frustrating to me, and fake. I didn't believe in anything he said or did and so never really cared about him. Personally, I don't think he really ever felt anything for Elio anyway so I wasn't really surprised when he just left and didn't remember the game of names that Elio is so fixated on at the end.
I think this book is enjoyable if you buy into Elio and Oliver's relationship. If you don't... well, it's just kind of dull and wordy. I don't understand Oliver at all, and I found Elio kind of creepy with his infatuation. I didn't enjoy them together in Rome or otherwise, and so I finished this book and thought 'huh, well that was a book I read'.
3/5 stars is a fair review from my personal opinion, I think. I cannot deny that Aciman is a talented author and I'd maybe be interested in looking into some of his other works, but this one just wasn't really for me.
In 'Call Me By Your Name' we follow 17 year old Elio as he comes to terms with his attraction towards 24 year old Oliver, who is an American staying in his family home in Italy for the summer as he works on his manuscript.
Elio is a very mature character, to the point of pretentiousness often if we're to be very honest. All the characters are kind of along these lines: incredibly intellectual professors and philosophers and academics, poets. At first I really enjoyed the wordiness of the story as it seemed to partner the hot Italian summer atmosphere of the beginning of the novel. Long, hot summer days where there was nothing better to do than go for a swim or play some tennis and make sure you get a lot of rest and midafternoon naps. It was slow in the story, and it was a slow paced novel. It worked well, gelling with the slow build in tension between Elio and Oliver and their feelings for each other that they refused to confess to one another.
Then as we move on in the novel it remains verbose and slow paced when things should, in my opinion, be moving along. We're still spending a lot of time introspectively wondering if anything
has changed between Elio and Oliver until the peach scene (which is gross, and I don't find any deep meaning in it personally) and things suddenly ramp up quite a bit. This may be a norm of the romance genre and I'll confess to not having read much of it, but I found the pacing overall unsatisfactory.
Oliver as a character I found mostly unlikeable. I do think Aciman does a good job of describing people though Elio's perspective so I'm not sure I even have a good grasp on Oliver as a character because I'm not sure Elio ever truly gets him. But he read as frustrating to me, and fake. I didn't believe in anything he said or did and so never really cared about him. Personally, I don't think he really ever felt anything for Elio anyway so I wasn't really surprised when he just left and didn't remember the game of names that Elio is so fixated on at the end.
I think this book is enjoyable if you buy into Elio and Oliver's relationship. If you don't... well, it's just kind of dull and wordy. I don't understand Oliver at all, and I found Elio kind of creepy with his infatuation. I didn't enjoy them together in Rome or otherwise, and so I finished this book and thought 'huh, well that was a book I read'.
3/5 stars is a fair review from my personal opinion, I think. I cannot deny that Aciman is a talented author and I'd maybe be interested in looking into some of his other works, but this one just wasn't really for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Rape