Review: Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

Call Me By Your Name is a coming-of-age novel about a brief but intense love that will be remembered--and felt--for a lifetime. Seventeen year old Elio is used to his home on the Italian Rivera being opened to guests, his father's students, and he thinks nothing of this until the day Oliver, an American student, stumbles out of a taxi, saying a casual, 'Later' to the driver. Elio is immediately smitten, with his imagination going into overdrive as he struggles to reconcile with his feelings. What begins with Elio doing his best to avoid Oliver eventually turns to a discover of love and intimacy like no other he has experienced before.

This was an empathetic and well crafted read about a young man struggling under the intensity of his feelings for another person. It is also a story of how two people find something so very rare--total intimacy with one another. That said, this isn't always comfortable reading and it should probably come with a disclaimer that many people don't get to have a relationship with their first real crush, but then again, why should reality dampen fiction? First published in 2007, the novel has since been made into a film and spawned a sequel, and it is not difficult to see why it has been enjoyed by so many readers. As well as the romance, the depiction of the Italian Rivera, youth and carefree summer days are quite stunning.

Recommended. 

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