Andre Aciman | CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Plot (via Goodreads):

Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

Review:

“We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste!” 

Alright, so I committed the ultimate bookworm sin - I watched the movie (multiple times) before I read the book. Now, even though I love some LGBTQ+ representation in film and literature, I just didn't know if this was going to be the story for me when I first heard about it. As a crime fiction fan, this obviously wasn't in my realm of what I really enjoy reading. Well, last summer that all changed. It was a Saturday night (my self-care night of the week) and I was in between books, so I ended up renting Call Me By Your Name and I was obsessed. After the credits rolled, I was sobbing...like ugly sobbing for a good half an hour and I just couldn't stop. What an incredible love story with such a gut-wrenching ending! The very next day, I was telling my mother how I watched this movie and it was so good and I just cried and her response was a "damn, I wish you would've waited for me!" and so, we watched it together the very next day. Come Monday, everyone in my office was having the good old "how was your weekend?" talk and all I could contribute was that I watched a movie Saturday night, sobbed, watched it again Sunday night, and then sobbed again. Great convo, Gare. 

Well for the past year, my friend Cindy has been borderline harassing me about how the book is so much better and there's more in the book than what was in the movie and how I just have to read it - but like, this was such an emotional movie that I couldn't picture how I would react when I was reading it, especially when there's more to the story. Now, I promise this is going to be a spoiler-free review, but if you've seen the movie then you know how that ends and if there's more to the story then will I just drown myself in my own tears or....? So it's been months and this week I came down with a really bad cold - the debilitating kind that just knocks you on your ass and keeps you there for days. Well, after two days of non-stop movie binging, I was still dealing with medicine head but needed to pick up a book. I reached for Call Me By Your Name and my honest opinion? Aciman's dreamlike ability to tell a story through the hazy sun in Italy is probably the most beautiful thing to read, but when you're hopped up on medicine and sick? It's even more stunning in its prose. I just immediately got lost in this story and Aciman's lucid words captivated me and kept me in this world that I didn't want to ever leave. It was 40 degrees outside and the wind was howling, but I was lost in a love story with the sun beating down on my slowly-breaking heart. This story is pure magic.

The way the story is told and how Aciman writes it definitely took some getting used to, but once I was used to it I just got lost and I didn't want to be found. I still don't. The story is told in first person from Elio's mind and the dialogue is rather sparse and it's definitely not one to skip a word, a sentence, nothing - you have to concentrate and be focused when reading this one, but it's so worth it. Now with an under 300 page book, this one is told in four parts and parts 1-3 just ravished my heart and mind with nostalgia. I think that we all have these moments where we look back at a relationship and you just kind of wrap yourself up in comparing yourself to Elio when you read this one - or maybe that was just me. I could feel what he was going through and I was confused and then lustful and then determined and saddened only to be uplifted again in such a lovely and vicious cycle within the journey of this poignant love story that you will relish in for hours and days. I knew halfway through this one that this was a story that will stick with me forever and I'll be damned if my heart doesn't break again just thinking about how amazing this story is. By the end of part three, I was a lost cause and the progression with this story was holding me tighter than any story ever has. And then, the speech happened. I never quote books in my reviews, but the quote at the top resonated with me and the way it is captured in the film is exactly how I imagined it in the book and it is something you need to hear. In that moment, Elio's father became my father - he was talking to me and I was crying again. Part four just completely gave my heart a run for its money and ended with the most beautiful last line in any story that ever existed. I can't get over how parts 1-3 just told this story over the span of the summer and part 4 went so far into the future of these two people that shared something so beautiful and special and how it effected them. My advice? Go in blind. Get lost. Fall in love with these characters, with this story. Let Andre Aciman control your emotions and guide you through Elio's voice into one of the most incredible stories that you will ever know. 

Rating: 5/5