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A review by justinkhchen
Find Me by André Aciman
3.0
3 stars
This is a tricky one to rate; part of me thoroughly appreciate Find Me for its beautiful prose and discussion on affection, but as a sequel to Call Me by Your Name, it feels insincere and reeks of cash grab.
First, the positives: André Aciman proves once again his uncanny ability at expressing heartfelt sentiments without tipping into clichés — this book is a literary goldmine for pull-quotes. I also appreciate the melancholic theme Find Me is exploring, that the time lost, and abandonment, no matter how regretful they seem at first glance, might be crucial (or even necessary) to a lasting relationship.
As a sequel, I honestly think this 'novel' (which is really a short story collection) came to fruition only to ride the success of Call Me by Your Name's film adaptation. It's evident André Aciman doesn't have anything significant to add to these characters, so we end up with 4 meandering vignettes that are very constrained in plot and scope. Even if we consider Find Me as pure fan service, it also makes the questionable decision to dedicate the longest segment to Sami (Elio's father), instead of Elio and Oliver.
Find Me should have been trimmed down and released as bonus materials accompanying Call Me by Your Name (like a special edition print), instead of its own stand-alone volume. While still worth checking out for Aciman's concise, elegant writing, Find Me is ultimately an unnecessary sequel that adds nothing to the characters we fell in love with from the original.
This is a tricky one to rate; part of me thoroughly appreciate Find Me for its beautiful prose and discussion on affection, but as a sequel to Call Me by Your Name, it feels insincere and reeks of cash grab.
First, the positives: André Aciman proves once again his uncanny ability at expressing heartfelt sentiments without tipping into clichés — this book is a literary goldmine for pull-quotes. I also appreciate the melancholic theme Find Me is exploring, that the time lost, and abandonment, no matter how regretful they seem at first glance, might be crucial (or even necessary) to a lasting relationship.
As a sequel, I honestly think this 'novel' (which is really a short story collection) came to fruition only to ride the success of Call Me by Your Name's film adaptation. It's evident André Aciman doesn't have anything significant to add to these characters, so we end up with 4 meandering vignettes that are very constrained in plot and scope. Even if we consider Find Me as pure fan service, it also makes the questionable decision to dedicate the longest segment to Sami (Elio's father), instead of Elio and Oliver.
Find Me should have been trimmed down and released as bonus materials accompanying Call Me by Your Name (like a special edition print), instead of its own stand-alone volume. While still worth checking out for Aciman's concise, elegant writing, Find Me is ultimately an unnecessary sequel that adds nothing to the characters we fell in love with from the original.