Book Review: Call Me By Your Name By Andre Aciman
Last week, I was looking back at some of my reviews that I have written on GoodReads and stumbled upon this book. I’m still thinking about it.
This book, a book that I read under the scorching sun of the summer, gave me peace. It provided me a slice of Italy. I was there…I was Elio.
Here’s my review:
"I stopped for a second. If you remember everything, I wanted to say, and if you are really like me, then before you leave tomorrow, or when you're just ready to shut the door of the taxi and have already said goodbye to everyone else and there's not a thing left to say in this life, then, just this once, turn to me, even in jest, or as an afterthought, which would have meant everything to me when we were together, and, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name."
Call Me By Your Name is an amazing book. It's just so good. It sucks you into Italy. It sucks you into Elio..into Oliver. Perfect summer book. I never wanted it to end.
When all has passed, when Oliver has a family, Elio is still stuck in the summer of 1983. He's still there. He can feel it, smell it. The heat, the apricots, Monet's berm..all of it.
Time has passed, and all Elio wants Oliver to say is his name. He desperately wants to scream for him to remember but is silent because he knows he cannot say anything anymore.
He can't urge Oliver to remember..yet Oliver claims he remembers everything.
And we are paused alongside Elio wondering if Oliver truly doesn't remember, or if he does but chooses not to say it.
This book is so good. The movie is so good. It's art.
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This review reigns true.
The last paragraph given to us in the book is Elio’s last monologue for Oliver. He yearns for him. And I can’t help but to dissect it all over again.
I think this is such an important paragraph for me. I will say that when I first read it, I was shocked. Shocked because the author depicted this feeling of want and yearn so well. He goes on and on, listing the slightest of details, and asking Oliver to give even a hint of remembering that summer. I know this feeling too well. It’s when you are dancing along the lines of “Do you remember how we loved each other? Because I know you do, but your choice is to ignore it forever… like it all never happened.”
The feeling of one last chance along with defeat. The last hoorah before you put the nail in the coffin. And Elio will be thinking - pondering and pondering - about it for the rest of his life.
I feel so much for Elio.
I think I’ll read this one again this summer.
