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A review by shrutislibrary
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
5.0
"You are the only person I’d like to say goodbye to when I die because only then will this thing I call my life make any sense. And if I should hear that you died, my life as I know it, the me who is speaking with you now, will cease to exist."
The novel begins somewhere in the Italian Riviera in the summer of mid-1980s when a 24-year-old American university professor, Oliver arrives at the summer villa of Elio's parents for a six-week residency. One word, 'later' and Elio is transported back to all those years ago in Italy reminiscing the summer and all its accompanying joys, anticipation, pining, disappointments, fickle hopes, guilt and fears. What we witness in the pages of the book is the pouring forth of the ravaging, self-loathing fire that fuels Elio's all-consuming passion for the cold, nonchalant and seemingly indifferent Oliver as this fire threatens to burn him white-hot under the Italian sun, and then changes him forever.
Aciman's writing is so poetic and moving it takes you right in the middle of this game of push and pull between Oliver and Elio. Poignant, concise passages elevate the most mundane activities and imbue them with a ritualistic aura. Breakfast, 'apricating' in the garden, taking a stroll at the Piazzetta, or taking a swim at the beach are some of the quieter, contemplative scenes that have an undercurrent of menace and upheaval as Elio wrestles to resist Oliver's charms and failing which feels an intense shame and guilt owing to this growing desire. There were passages I felt lost not knowing where Elio was going with a particular metaphor. This book needs rereading to better appreciate the writing.
The book has a musical rhythm as each of the four parts show the constant ebb and flow of their clandestine relationship. "If not later, when" is all about the quiet, distant observing and snatched glances, things come to a heady pass at "Monet's berm" and the final disenchantment occurs in Rome. Then decades later, they pick up the pieces in "Ghost spot" concluding in a spellbinding passage. I felt like I had lived a lifetime reading Oliver and Elio's story.
The novel begins somewhere in the Italian Riviera in the summer of mid-1980s when a 24-year-old American university professor, Oliver arrives at the summer villa of Elio's parents for a six-week residency. One word, 'later' and Elio is transported back to all those years ago in Italy reminiscing the summer and all its accompanying joys, anticipation, pining, disappointments, fickle hopes, guilt and fears. What we witness in the pages of the book is the pouring forth of the ravaging, self-loathing fire that fuels Elio's all-consuming passion for the cold, nonchalant and seemingly indifferent Oliver as this fire threatens to burn him white-hot under the Italian sun, and then changes him forever.
Aciman's writing is so poetic and moving it takes you right in the middle of this game of push and pull between Oliver and Elio. Poignant, concise passages elevate the most mundane activities and imbue them with a ritualistic aura. Breakfast, 'apricating' in the garden, taking a stroll at the Piazzetta, or taking a swim at the beach are some of the quieter, contemplative scenes that have an undercurrent of menace and upheaval as Elio wrestles to resist Oliver's charms and failing which feels an intense shame and guilt owing to this growing desire. There were passages I felt lost not knowing where Elio was going with a particular metaphor. This book needs rereading to better appreciate the writing.
The book has a musical rhythm as each of the four parts show the constant ebb and flow of their clandestine relationship. "If not later, when" is all about the quiet, distant observing and snatched glances, things come to a heady pass at "Monet's berm" and the final disenchantment occurs in Rome. Then decades later, they pick up the pieces in "Ghost spot" concluding in a spellbinding passage. I felt like I had lived a lifetime reading Oliver and Elio's story.