A review by laurenleigh
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I found this beautiful, poignant, and heartbreaking in a strangely satisfying way, for a number of reasons. There’s a catharsis in reliving your first love, in all its intensity and eagerness and doomed fate, as it must almost inevitably make room for a second, third, fourth love. There’s also a certain happiness to be found in watching a young person feel ALL the feelings, compared to your older self, who still has a lot of feelings of course, but has the gift of perspective. Lastly, I derive a twisted pleasure when a book can break my heart. That black squiggles on a page or a string of sounds can bring about rich, unfettered emotion is a never-ending marvel to me.  I really want to reread this in print sometime, to better sit with Aciman’s language. I also, unsurprisingly, want to rewatch the movie for the umpteenth time. I actually can’t decide if I like the movie or the book better, which is rare. If anything, I appreciate the movie even more now. The acting, the directing, the soundtrack…ah they were all so perfectly encapsulating of the text. I think the one and only thing missing from the movie is some of the nuances regarding Elio’s bisexuality. Not that Elio ever pins down or puts words to how he identifies, but the book just illustrates this element of Elio a bit better.
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