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

emotional relaxing medium-paced

4.0

On balance, I think this is a four star read, although as it went on, I began to vacillate between four stars and three and a half. That is not a criticism of the language, which is absolutely beautiful. Rather, it is that constant complaint of mine: too long. And this is a relatively short novel, but still. I wonder if it might have been better even shorter... if it had lost 25% of itself, perhaps, my attention would not have wavered so towards the end. I know I bitch about length a lot in these reviews, but I do like short writing, and I think that often the strengths of a story, whatever they are, can be buried beneath a little too much padding. The padding here is beautiful, and Aciman's prose is smooth as butter, but even butter becomes a little too consistent, a little too glossy, if you eat too much of it.