It is about seventeen-year-old Elio, who falls into a deep romantic and sexual obsession with the twenty-four year-old Oliver when the latter becomes a summer guest at Elio's parents' Italian villa.
If there was ever a perfect place to set a heady novel of this kind, then it must be the cliffs of the Italian Riviera. I can feel my cold heart melting just thinking about it. We stay inside Elio's mind as he fantasizes romantically and sexually about Oliver.
Aciman builds a novel based on innermost thoughts and the most painful of emotions. But I envy you the pain. It might not be my usual choice of book, but I think Call Me by Your Name is one that will stay with me. Sometimes it is the exceptions to my rules that I find myself remembering the most. Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube View all 73 comments. From what I had seen of the film - that is shirtless Armie Hammer and not much else because I wanted to read the book before even watching the trailer - and from what I had heard about the book, I was up for a promising and exciting read.
Oh, and a gay one, too. To be blunt, I expected more. More emotion most of all. Longing and sexual frustration dominated most of the novel, but I was looking for dramatic heartbreak and high emotions.
Maybe a tear or two. Maybe I didn't connect enough with Elio, the main character. Sometimes I even disliked him. Then again I understood his aching and longing for a guy that seemed so very much out of reach.
What bothered me most was the highbrow narrative style, the thousands upon thousands of cultural references to literature, music and art. I felt like someone had slapped me with a travelling guide and a Latin dictionary over and over again. It seemed pretentious and took away my interest in the novel. The writing was beautiful at times and overwhelming at others. Sentences were much too long and seemed never-ending. Pretentious, again.
I can't decide if I want to give this two or three stars - I might change the rating again later. It's not that I disliked the novel, on the contrary, sometimes it was like a dream: Italian food prepared by a personal cook, strolling on the beach, lazing around in the sun, handsome and interesting people around night and day. The openness with which Aciman wrote the gay sex scenes surprised me positively.
But especially towards the end, it almost bored me, for reasons that I already mentioned above. However, I have high hopes for the film adaption. It has the chance to develop the feelings and the relationship between Elio and Oliver much better and to actually make me feel something.
Find more of my books on Instagram View all 92 comments. I've put off writing this review for far too long because I'm afraid I won't do the book justice. I want to write a review that makes everyone drop what they're doing and start reading Call Me by Your Name immediately. Reading the other reviews, I find a lot of polarization about Aciman's writing style, which I loved. Some people find him pretentious, while others find his prose bordering on poetic. I definitely fall in the latter category.
Most books are read for a good story and I understand tha I've put off writing this review for far too long because I'm afraid I won't do the book justice. Most books are read for a good story and I understand that, but other books, like this one, are read for the enjoyment of language. What I mean by that is that a great many of the sentences in this book can be read and enjoyed all on their own because they're so beautifully written. Aciman has obviously labored over his phrasing to the point that I found myself often stopping to reread a sentence a few times and just luxuriate in the warm bath of words.
The story itself is great because it really has the ring of truth. The characters in this book are far from perfect and sometimes infuriating. I won't discuss plot other than to say that it is bittersweet and just real. I think any gay man will see his young self in the protagonist. So, in summary, read this book! View all comments.
View all 21 comments. How wonderful it is when you find a forever book. We're all Elio, aren't we? View all 12 comments. Jan 28, Julie rated it it was ok Shelves: book-club , you-ll-need-a-cigarette , don-t-believe-the-hype , books-that-promote-rape.
A friend of mine took me to a French film festival when I was in my 20s. The first movie we watched was about a creepy little 12 or 13 year old kid who stole a piece of raw liver from his mother's kitchen and proceeded to have relations with it. He then returned the liver to the kitchen, where his mother lovingly and none the wiser proceeded to cook the organ meat for her family, and then we, the audience, were subjected to watching them all eat it.
The little creep then got bored with stealin A friend of mine took me to a French film festival when I was in my 20s. The little creep then got bored with stealing and sullying the family's groceries, so he started having relations with a neighborhood cat. Join me when you're ready. It's true that sometimes we should consider stretching our comfort zones and not always abandon something because it makes us slightly uncomfortable.
But, it may also be true that sometimes something is just plain disgusting to our senses. This book, Call Me By Your Name could fall into either or both categories depending upon your perspective. My grandmother, who was born in , was from a different time, and never, within her lifetime, became comfortable with the topic of homosexuality to be honest, she wasn't all that comfortable with the topic of heterosexuality.
Hers was not a religious bias, more a cultural one, but naturally many religious perspectives against homosexuality exist still today. This book would not have been palatable to my grandmother for that reason, and is not for everyone.
I, on the other hand, have no religious or cultural bias against stories that explore sexual relations between any consenting adults. And, the homosexual relationship that happens here is actually the most palatable one to me in the entire story. To be frank, I was cheering on the Elio-Oliver relationship right from the start. THIS was not my problem. First off, this kid Elio is the most unrealistic year-old character unless you want to include any character from Jaws I've come across in a while.
Nothing about him seems legitimate, from his completely unrealistic grasp of translating the most difficult musical masterpieces to expressing insecurities about himself but then boldly proclaiming himself sexually to a man seven years to his senior. Absolutely none of his dialogue is believable and he remains a totally unformed character, from beginning to end. Unformed and Mr. People, a creeper did this to my mother's dirty underwear in college and she and my father called the cops.
Get it? That ain't sexy, that's creepy. And then. Now grab me a Xanax, will you? I let myself hang back, holding the fruit in both hands, grateful that I hadn't gotten the sheet dirty with either juice or come. The bruised and damaged peach, like a rape victim, lay on its side on my desk, shamed, loyal, aching, and confused, struggling not to spill what I'd left inside.
Aciman, for this disgusting and inappropriate metaphor. You have pissed me off, sir! View all 94 comments. Feb 09, Maria rated it really liked it. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste! What an intense book, what an intense ending. Hello people, I hope you remember this lass here, I haven't written a single review in almost 6 months.
Which is the entire period of my internship, the one that's almost ending now. So I picked up reading again, how fucking happy that makes me you have no idea. So, back to the chase. My experience with this story starts with the movie. Yes, I committed the dreadful sin of watching the movie before reading the book. And yes, I'm a bookworm. But anyway, I watched the movie, fell in love, bought the book with a 5 euro deal from Book Depository, fell in love again.
You see, this book has no plot. I hate books which contain no plot, and things just happen without a specific order or reason. But this book worked because it entailed no plot. This book conveys in us the raw and true and sinful emotions and feelings of Elio, a very special and intricate character, which at the age of 17 falls in love with a 24 year old man. What is more beautiful than this? His emotions are so real that they take form, we can smell them, eat them, feel them ourselves.
This book was so mesmerizing, the writing was so poetic and John-Greeny at times, but it suited it. This kind of writing was needed, otherwise the book wouldn't be as gripping as it was. The ending absolutely and irrevocably annihilated my feelings. This ending wasn't included in the movie, it was something entirely new to me and I don't know how it will work with an alleged sequel I'm hearing is at works, but i'm excited to know the outcome.
I truly hope, we will all find love like this in our lives. Their love moved me in many aspects, and I wish love just like this exists in this world. I want people and myself to feel this love to their bones, and always feel young because of it. Anyway, till the next one K BYE! View all 29 comments. I appreciate the pulsating emotions of lust and desire in Call Me by Your Name , even if my own first crushes did not manifest into much of anything.
However, I struggled to get into this book. The writing felt too distant, intellectual, and heavy for me to immerse myself in Elio and Oliver's world. The book contained so much introspection and 2. The book contained so much introspection and I wanted more scenes, to get us into these present moments with the two lovers. And while I understand that the book aims to portray infatuation, I found myself bored at times with Elio's obsession with Oliver. Could he have thought some more about the healthfulness or unhealthfulness of his feelings for Oliver?
Or could Andre Aciman have included more details about these characters other than their feelings for one another, to make them both more three-dimensional? I wish we had received more from these characters: more dialogue, more development, and more insight into their desire for one another.
Still, yay for a gay romance garnering attention, even if it does feature two white leads and conventionally attractive characters. View all 33 comments. I wanted to make fun of this maddening book, but really, I must just want to make fun of myself for loving it. Grad student. Italian beach. More poetry. I agree with whoever likens Aciman's approach to Proust's which is probably everybody who has read both Aciman and Proust.
This is not a Gay Coming of Age Novel, at all; it's an el I wanted to make fun of this maddening book, but really, I must just want to make fun of myself for loving it. Which is a feat in itself. What novelist could really survive a direct comparison to Proust?
Best to avoid it. The frustrations of the novel only become apparent once the spell of Aciman's spare but lovely prose has been broken. I was too entranced by the salt breezes and the sunlit stones, and the daily rituals of swimming, breakfast, dissertation work, coffee, dinner guests, town, bed, and the millions of specific new shades of pain that result from each and every moment spent around, and away from, the narrator's object of desire.
There are some story frustrations here, to be sure, but from this book, I was only expecting a bit of light escapism for my subway ride. My expectations were so successfully shattered, it was almost uncomfortable to read it in public. Hell, yes. The heat here is not the heat of sex acts, however, though there is that but the heat of an ever-building, single-minded, raw-gutted longing, and the pain of remembering it.
The heat is the agony of obsession, when any solitary glance or casual exchange can be sharpened with two, three, ten edges of conflicting meaning. I don't know that I've ever read a book so relentlessly accurate in its detailing of each precise doubt and hope, but mostly doubt, that colors any interaction or lack of interaction with the object of one's desire.
These precise doubts are separated out and distilled purely and tightly and lucidly by Aciman. He just does not let up. As much as I thought I'd want to throw this book down at times, I almost missed my stop because it would not let me go. View all 18 comments. Shelves: cuz-karen-says-so. SH: what do you think so far JAG: i like it.
SH: yeah JAG: little intimacies. JAG: the first time i ever cried in public was when he told me he didn't want to be my friend. SH: yea JAG: whole-person rejection. SH: you wanna know something weird?
JAG: fine, i'll change your name. PS added january 23, fuck me in the eye do i hate it when straight actors get kudos for playing queer characters. View all 78 comments. Jun 22, Ruby Granger rated it it was amazing.
Aciman's writing is rich and quiscent. Past, present and future intercept in Call Me By Your Name, and I love that this book is etched with memories which are immediate and distant at the same time. Just like Elio and Oliver's relationship which is both carnal and abstract. One of the best final few pages of any novel I've read.
Then I found interest in it again, and I heard that it was turned into a movie and was coming out really soon at the time. My interest in the book kind of went back and forth because of the age gap and all that.
But I decided to read it, and oh boy do I have opinions. First, this book has a simple premise. Two men fall in love in Italy. There's a little bit of an age gap. And that's all I took in because this writing spent more time on atmosphere then actually telling a story. I like atmospheric writing but not this kind.
For me it took away from the story. It's the kind you can easily skim and won't lose much if you did. At times, the book was just excessively boring. I found it really hard to engage with the story or the characters. At times, Oliver was a little creepy.
Sometimes he didn't make sure he had consent and just assumed Elio was consenting a correct assumption but an assumption nonetheless. One time when he did ask Elio if he could kiss him, Elio almost scoffed that he had because they had kissed before. That was a strange thing to add, Oliver was trying to respect his boundaries, Elio didn't need to say he didn't like it. Oliver also, as the goddamn adult in the situation, does point out that their relationship was inappropriate and still goes through with it.
That didn't really sit well with me. I think they needed more communication since this is a complicated relationship. I think they're should've been more. Aside from all that, there was the peach scene. Before that, this would've been a two star but this brought the book down for me, to the point I just skimmed until the end.
I was horrified. If you don't want to know what the scene is, then stop here and go read another book. Anyway, what happened in the scene was the Elio masturbated into a peach.
He took the seed out and everything. He also orgasmed into it, leaving his semen in it. And then Oliver knowing this, eats it. He takes a full on fucking bite into this desecrated peach. I'm no stranger to smut scenes, most of what I read is adult romances so sex doesn't bother me well, unless it's foot fetishes which was in this too but I draw the line at shit like this.
I actually felt nauseous. Before that scene, this would've been a two star read but it genuinely ruined everything. Am I going to watch the movie? Probably not. Especially knowing the peach scene is in it alright I'll stop with the peach scene but I really didn't like the relationship either. The book is overall overhyped and I never connected with the characters.
The writing felt like it kept me at arms length, and I am already forgetting what happened in this book. View all 59 comments. Aug 30, Barry Pierce rated it it was amazing Shelves: read-in , 21st-century. Well, this fucked me up. View all 5 comments. Jan 19, Sofia rated it did not like it Recommends it for: ahahahaha no one at all, ever. Shelves: failed-romance , idek-anymore-guys , what-a-terrible-ending , le-sigh , ya-contemporary , disappointments , romance , graphic , i-am-disgusted , gary-stu.
All I know is pain. This is a contemporary romance between a boy named Elio and his summer guest, Oliver. It's very introspective, dreamy, somehow disconnected from the physical world. I hated it.
The writing felt far away, almost--as if Elio's thoughts were from a whole different planet altogether. Elio is a shallow character who is only half crafted. Before Oliver, he was nothing. We know All I know is pain. We know nothing about his life before this summer.
He has no hobbies besides transcribing music and sitting next to the pool, ruminating on the secrets of the universe. I'm trying to describe him, but I simply can't, because there's nothing to describe. He's a vessel through which the story is told.
He is not a unique individual. Oliver isn't much better. We hardly know anything about him, besides the fact that sometimes he wears red bathing suits. I don't even know what he looks like. He's American. He always says "Later" instead of "good-bye. I did not care about this ship. I did not care about Elio or Oliver. The only person I cared about was Marzia, who was basically used by Elio to cover up his relationship with Oliver, which I thought was disgusting.
We do not stan toxicity in this household. The main problem with this book was the lack of humanity. Every character was under-developed. Even the setting wasn't vibrant. I had a hard time distinguishing Elio's thoughts from what was actually happening.
It's very contemplative and brooding, but I find that annoying and I didn't enjoy it at all. I managed to force myself through until I got to the part where Elio compared a peach to a rape victim, and then I decided to finish this quickly, rate it 0. Conclusion: Romance is not for me. Another conclusion: Never again. I wanted to kill him myself. If I didn't kill him, then I'd cripple him for life, so that he'd be with us in a wheelchair. If he were in a wheelchair, I would always know where he was, and he'd be easy to find.
I would feel superior to him and become his master, now that he was crippled. Ah yes, this is a psychological thriller in which we delve deep into the mind and thoughts of a stalker. Err, you say this is a romance? Ok, you've lost me. Let me just come out and say it: Call Me b I wanted to kill him myself. Let me just come out and say it: Call Me by Your Name is awful. It reads like the obsessive, icky, slavish ramblings of an unbalanced teenager rather than the beautiful romance I was promised.
In order to have an enjoyable romance, I need to be able to relate to the characters. Unfortunately, I did not relate to a single person in here. But then perhaps this is what lovers are. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything — what a waste! The others barely echo. I had chosen him well.
I looked at her as if she had asked me if I loved music, or bread and salted butter, or ripe fruit in the summertime. They hide who they are. I suppose. And we'll want to call it envy, because to call it regret would break our hearts. All Quotes Add A Quote.
Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Harvard Square 1, ratings. Videos About This Author. More videos I wanted to be as frank as possible without being coy or offensive. One of the tricks I used was, when they get in bed together, Elio loses sense of time [because he has smoked some pot]. It is only later, while they are swimming, that you get hints of what they did.
Love — unrequited or not, memory, identity, longing, passion and loss seem to be common characteristics in your work. When I write about these things, I assume everybody understands and feels that way. The trouble is that nobody admits it.
I am always the first one who says it. For instance, I think that most people are terrified of making a phone call when asking someone out on the first day. Do you think it is restrictive? Once you use the name of an emotion or desire, you solidify it. The work of a writer is not to solidify or concretise but to take something and dilate it in such a way that it expands and becomes comprehensive.
Then I regretted even wanting to sleep with you. When there is want as opposed to love , things become a bit more ambiguous and credible. My job is to find the right wording so that I can harmonise everything that is happening in your soul as opposed to giving it a direct name.
Your book, Out of Egypt , chronicles your experiences as an exiled Alexandrian teen, someone without a country. How does this sense of displacement affect your work?
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