André Aciman

This flayed me apart. Multiple times I cried, hit my thighs, asking why, oh why?

I put this off for a couple years because I thought it was going to break my heart, and I was right. I hate the first section of this book and the last section, but throughout it all, it was so beautiful, the writing was so nostalgic and scattered (in time and memory) and evocative of what being a teenager in love and beginning to bloom into life is like, especially with the one person who will ever get you show more completely and share every piece of your body with you, and become you while you become him.

God, the run-on sentences, the intellectual writing, the fumbling attitudes and parries, the sweeping beautiful scenes and soaking emotions, how the information of names and time are trickled in bit by bit, so you aren't even sure what decade the book is set in until half way through...

This book was a dream, a literary oasis of music, thought, touch, truth, beauty, pain, horror, and heartbreak that you never recover from. It tells of how time goes on, but some experiences change your reality and never vacate your heart. This was wordy and full to overflowing with experiences. Mr. André Aciman is a wonderous writer, and I felt completely dropped into this time and place. So many choices were not what I would have made, but I completely, even though I am still mad, give them their story.

My kindle book said the average reading time was under four hours...it took me about eleven, because I was transfixed, feeling every paragraph with my fingertips, highlighting too many words, and rereading to get at a deeper meaning. I stayed up well past sunrise and into midmorning, because I couldn't bear to split this up into a two-night read.

I am heartbroken and angry, my neck is lots of pain every time I try to move it, and I really need a shower and some sleep, but I do not regret being transported to their world for a little while. This reinforced why I do not read books with sad endings, but I am glad I plucked up my courage to live this story and bask in the joy of life. I am going to pretend they stayed happy instead of slipping into their "comas" and got back together, quickly, or I am going to only think of the first three sections. However I do it, this story has indelibly marked me. So, Mr. Aciman, I hate you very much for killing my heart (why not rip it out and wrap it in a billowy shirt?) and making them suffer without respite (why would you give them everything just to take it away?), but thank you very much for gifting us with this grand work of art.

...Two days later and I still think of their story all the time, so many things remind me, and my stomach will still suddenly hurt from sadness when I recall this scene or that. This story affects me more than any other has. I am sad, but I am also so deeply angry. They had it all, were the deepest and rarest of couples, but then neither of them fought for each other; one chose another path, and the other just let him. And, there were hinted possibilities as to why, sure, but they had acceptance, could have chosen each other...instead after the most intimate time they just let each other go. Was it fear, the intensity of heir connection, their differences, taking the path of least resistance? But then fifteen, then twenty years later neither had moved on emotionally, were still and forever would be remembering and holding on to those few short weeks, and they regretted the choices made that ended their being together all those years ago. That is why I am sad and angry. Even after all the foreshadowing, I had hope because there was no reason to lose it. Until they just both gave their relationship up without a fight. I will never accept that. I think that's the only imperfect thing for me about this story. That they didn't need to, but still did. It hurts too much. "Fenesta Ca Lucive" sung by Roberto Murolo understands it all. show less

I don't know how to start this review.

I hated this book. I hated it because I loved it. Because it's perfect. Because it's more than perfect. Because tears are welling up in my eyes as I think about the past two/three hours I spent curled up on the living room sofa with my eyes never leaving their spot on the page, at times spending entire minutes gasping silently, at times putting the book down and whispering "wow" to myself, at times (and this one happened the most, I fear, so many show more embarrassing times) whimpering and almost beginning to sob.

I can't deal with this book. I can't. It's love in the most perfect way. Love in the way I wish I could one day be able to experience it. It's when one person knows another so well that they can become them. I don't know if that makes sense. In fact, it doesn't make sense, even to me, even to Oliver and Elio, even to anyone in this world. That's what I got from this book: Search for meaning, and don't end up finding it. That's life.

I visited Italy last summer, but the way Aciman conjures it is so perfect, even more perfect, more real than the way it was when I was there. It's almost as if he experienced what I experienced but actually poured all of his talent and work to transcribe it into one small section (Part 3) of this amazing, mindblowing novel.

I can honestly say that this is one of my favorite books. I don't want to say "my favorite book" because then I end up ruining everything and sounding like the ten-year-old who had just read the fifth Harry Potter. Which is who I am. Because I just finished this book and, like Staordinario-fantastico, I just don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight.

I think I'm going to watch some TV. That should carve out some of the emotion that had just bloomed inside my body. show less

Elio is a 17-year-old son of Jewish intellectuals who spends summer with his family in a 17th-century villa in Italy. They are soon joined by an American graduate student Oliver who comes to help his father as a summer intern. Elio develops feelings for Oliver.

This is a beautiful story of the first love and the whole mess only it can produce. Lots of well-written introspective passages and some really interesting characters. Finally, a 17-year-old boy who is intellectual, artistic and feels show more real at the same time.
I enjoyed all the little details of a Mediterranean summer that reminded me of my own youth. That was the perfect background for the events in the book and brought a certain magic to the story that could've been boring otherwise.

I skimmed over the reviews and found a lot of people shocked at the "peach" scene or some other more open scenes. It seems to me that people are more conservative now than they were in the 1980s or maybe I just wasn't aware of it before. I'm glad that the novel is not constrained in that sense. It's an ode to youth and first love, very sensual. It also feels real because there is no big drama here, nobody betrays anyone, there are no big twists. It is so refreshing to read a book that seems so real and so beautiful. show less

Thanks to the awards buzz of Luca Guadagnino's mesmerizing and beautifully composed film adaptation starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, André Aciman's "Call Me By Your Name" has seen a signficant boost of attention for the public over the last year (at least I suddenly began to see copies of the novel on every shelf in every bookstore), and the number of conversations about it has only increased. The movie ended up being my first introduction to the story of Elio and Oliver, but I show more didn't wait long to immerse myself into the novel and learn more about these characters, and it turned out that while a few things may have worked better in the movie and a few things may have worked better in the novel, "Call Me By Your Name" has been written so beautifully and adapted into a cinematic medium so perfectly that both versions of the story balance each other out in their beauty and intimate sense of nostalgia.

I don't even know if that's a satisfying way to describe both the novel and the movie: there is something achingly and painfully slow about the writing; meaning that anyone not interested enough to care about the characters will probably have to face torment and agony during their attempt to get through "Call Me By Your Name". And yet, the prose is patient and hauntingly beautiful, to the extent that it was impossible to not fall in love with the writing style for me. The setting is used sublimely to create a unique and memorable atmosphere. I haven't ever read anything similar to it in terms of style and atmosphere; it has been compared to Alan Hollinghurst's [b:The Swimming-Pool Library|30106|The Swimming-Pool Library|Alan Hollinghurst|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388450054s/30106.jpg|2776591] or Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach, but honestly, nothing you have ever seen or read before could possibly prepare you for the stunning beauty of "Call Me By Your Name", no matter if you experience the cinematic adaptation or Aciman's fantastic novel first. If you haven't already been interested in picking up the book before reading my review, then I really don't know how to convince you anymore. show less