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A review by jordan_noel
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
At first, I felt this book was an overly vulgar description of a teenager’s sexual awakening initiated by his attraction to an older, mature man. It felt like a summer romance and nothing more; a fling to be done with at the end. Maybe reminisced upon in an older age, but never a deep regret.
However, in Part 4, this suddenly felt like much more to me.
<SPOILER>
With loss, their romance could be clearly recognized as eros; something the readers could grieve with the characters. In Oliver’s forced complacency with his new wife and family and Elio’s determination to hang on to this brief moment in the past, it’s hard not to feel grief for such a short-lived happiness. What they had together doesn’t disappear as they age but it gets silenced and the characters are forced to live lives of dejection. If I could feel as much in the rest of the book as I felt in Part 4, I could find practically nothing to complain about in this book. Maybe it was the author’s intention to make us feel such deep regret after viewing their love as an initially silly romance, I don’t know. But I do feel this book greatly connects beauty and sexuality with a most turbulent and determined kind of love in a way that’s unique and unexplored in many modern love stories.
However, in Part 4, this suddenly felt like much more to me.
<SPOILER>
With loss, their romance could be clearly recognized as eros; something the readers could grieve with the characters. In Oliver’s forced complacency with his new wife and family and Elio’s determination to hang on to this brief moment in the past, it’s hard not to feel grief for such a short-lived happiness. What they had together doesn’t disappear as they age but it gets silenced and the characters are forced to live lives of dejection. If I could feel as much in the rest of the book as I felt in Part 4, I could find practically nothing to complain about in this book. Maybe it was the author’s intention to make us feel such deep regret after viewing their love as an initially silly romance, I don’t know. But I do feel this book greatly connects beauty and sexuality with a most turbulent and determined kind of love in a way that’s unique and unexplored in many modern love stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Excrement
Minor: Chronic illness, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Death