Call Me By Your Name

𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘦 𝘉𝘺 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦 by André Aciman is a story of growing up entwined with an unforgettable narrative of love and desire. It is almost impossible to categorise this magnificent novel into a genre as it transcends the ideas of passion and love that we possess. It's a restless and hugely intimate novel that simply transported me to a world which I did not want to leave. In the 80s, based on the Italian Riviera, 17 year old Elio falls deeply and irrevocably in love with Oliver, an older scholar who had come to get assistance from Elio's father for his manuscript that was to be published soon. During his stay for over six weeks with Elio's family, he evokes this swooning passion in the young boy with his charming conversation skills and very American manners. It is with great care that Aciman has directed the narrative through Elio, his burning desire for Oliver which sometimes resembled that of borderline obsession of a young boy. These profound feelings of desire on Elio's part were romantically magnified with the slightest of touch and the most mundane of events by the author. Through the characters of Elio's parents, Aciman makes way for the lovers to experience the deep aches of love and heartache in young love without any societal impediment. Aciman's words are kindred to those of a beautiful gust of wind and his characters are free in their choices of love and living. The memories of adoration and Italy amalgamated and took me into a trance that I didn't want to step out of. This is truly what a novel about romance should feel like, with its unexplainable heartbeats in the gut and feverish longing all wrapped up with incessant passion.

This is the kind of book that shall make you smile. This is also the kind of book that shall make you cry. Between the raw appeal of unexplored spots and the sensory turmoil of gasping breath, the unbearable tease of nubile skin and the obscure redundancy of sartorial shame, 'Call Me By Your Name' is devastatingly beautiful in depicting first love. In Aciman’s languorously seductive, deeply measured and wholly hopeful prose, Elio and Oliver discover more than the heady magic of corporeal beauty; they discover a chest full of memories to last a lifetime. And they learn to embrace love the way it should be embraced – without conditions. This is the kind of book that shall stay with you for years and you would want to pass it on to your children, and their children.

Call Me by Your Name is a sultry, all consuming and a remarkable coming of age novel about love and fixation, passion and accepting who you are. This book is not a cliched romantic novel! Not even close to it! It is invigorating, sad, tender, poetic and intimate. Told from the perspective of Elio, a seventeen year old boy, this book follows his life primarily over the duration of one summer when his life is changed by his romantic and sexual obsession with Oliver, a 24 year old American novelist, who resides as a house guest at Elio’s parents Villa for that summer. I loved how the author used Elio’s voice for this story and described his thoughts, uncertainties and confusion intensely deeply. I believe that the author did a great job in creating a sense of time and place. Also, the characters were quite well developed according to me and even with other main as well as secondary characters, the author was successful in conveying and justifying their thoughts quite well. Overall, I loved this book and I can’t wait to watch the movie now!!!

One of those books that's so adept at describing feelings and all the firsts in romantic love, it sends you back in time to those deeply felt moments when you were as vulnerable, as hopeful, as fearful, as anxious, as stupid, as joyous, and could go from intense happiness and walking on the clouds one minute, to absolute sadness with nary a ray of hope in sight in another. Elio takes you back to that time in your life when the rawness of feelings wasn't tempered by experience. And Aciman manages this stellar feat without ever sounding trite. You can't help but feel as Elio feels.

What I hadn't anticipated when I began reading this book was, how Elio's thoughts seemed so universal, such as, "Does he hate me?", "What am I doing wrong?", "Do I deserve this?". We have all gone through such doubts about ourselves from time to time. But Elio seems to never stop beating himself up over small things. Especially when he's smitten by the brooding and attractive American resident at his summer house in Italy, in the 1980s. Their attraction and curiosity toward each other brings them as close and throws them as far as they can imagine. But the passion between them is more searing than fire itself and all-consuming. I found myself feeling for Elio and his valid doubts about his worthiness towards Oliver, who in turn shows us his vulnerable side after a while. I'm don't usually enjoy the Romance genre but this one completely stumped me. There was never a dull moment throughout. The vivid imagery and genius of Andre Aciman leave you gasping for more. I liked the way the book ended but wasn't expecting it. Elio and Oliver were characters larger than life and almost tangible. They will stay with me for a long time. Do give this book a read. You won't be disappointed in the least.

Don't even think about it. Just go for it. Getting this book will be the best decision you'll make today. This was one of the prettiest books I've received from amazon. Everything about it was perfect. The paper quality was better than any of the other novels I had. And the cover if just magnificent.

The binding of the book should be improved.The pages came loose by first day.

This has to be my best read of 2019. The writing style, the descriptions, the story - everything Is so evocative, different and thoroughly enjoyable. This book takes you to the 20th century Italian life and the way author brings about the blooming of emotions.. and the struggle in a teenage while showing how life goes on is just purely heavenly to read.

Ich habe gerade den Roman zu lesen beendet und ich weiß gar nicht, wohin mit mir. Das sitzt richtig tief. Natürlich bin ich über den Film zu dem Buch gekommen, habe das Buch zuerst begonnen, zwischendurch den Film in einer Vorpremiere OmU sehen können und es jetzt, wie gesagt, beendet. Wie eine Rezensentin vor mir musste ich zwischendurch das Buch beiseitelegen, weil ich dann doch überwältigt wurde. Ich finde es auch nicht leicht zu lesen. Für mich persönlich wäre das keine Sommerlektüre für den Strand. Dazu ist es neben der ganzen Poesie auch einfach zu traurig und komplex. Und das nochmal eine Stufe intensiver als im Film, der ja erst gegen Ende so richtig zubeißt. Der Roman ist eine Introspektive und eine Erinnerung zwanzig Jahre zurück. "It is the first thing I remember about him, and I can hear it still today. Later! I shut my eyes, say the word, and I'm back in Italy, so many years ago, walking down the tree-lined driveway, watching him step out of the cab, billowy blue shirt, wide-open collar, sunglasses, straw hat, skin everywhere. Suddenly he's shaking my hand, handing me his backpack, removing his suitcase from the trunk of the cab, asking if my father is home." Den ganzen Roman bestimmt von Anfang an ein melancholisch-sehnsüchtiger Grundton, der sich bis zum Ende hält und sich eher noch steigert. Ein Sehnen, das nie zu Ende geht. Das ganze Leben lang. Letztlich geht es hier um die Wirkung der Zeit auf die Menschen und ihre Gefühle und darum, dass ein Paradies nur in der Erinnerung aufrechterhalten werden kann. Darum, wie immer wieder Teile der Persönlichkeit herausgerissen und immer neue Schichten darübergelegt wurden, wie bei einer sehr alten Kirche. Darum wie man sich dabei oberflächlich verändert oder die äußeren Bedingungen, aber vielleicht tief unter den neuen Schichten noch einen Rest Ihrer Liebe von damals entdeckt werden kann. Etwas, was sie geprägt hat, auf der sie sich alles gründet. Time makes us sentimental. Perhaps, in the end, it is because of time that we suffer. Das Buch ist in vier Kapitel eingeteilt und die Geschichte der beiden Männer wird aus subjektiver Sicht Elios erzählt im Rückblick 20 Jahre später. Im ersten trifft Elio (17) auf Oliver (24), den amerikanischen Doktoranden, der über sechs Wochen in Ihrem Haus in Italien verbringen soll, um dort zu arbeiten. Vom ersten Moment an richtet sich eine fast obsessive Aufmerksamkeit auf Oliver. Jeder Schritt, jede Aussage, jedes Verhalten Olivers wird analysiert und interpretiert, jede Stelle seines Körpers gescannt. Wir sind in Elios Kopf. Aber Oliver ist abweisend. Elio hasst ihn dafür aber im nächsten Moment verfällt er ihm wieder, sobald er von dem anderen etwas Aufmerksamkeit oder Zuspruch erfährt. Im zweiten und längsten Kapitel gesteht Elio nach ca. zwei Wochen der Qualen Oliver seine Empfindungen. Trotz Zögerns seitens Olivers beginnt eine erst sehr vorsichtige Annäherung, die noch über weitere zwei Wochen andauert bis auch bei Ihm alle Schranken fallen. Im dritten Kapitel verbringen beide gemeinsam Olivers letzte Tage in Rom, wo sie das erste mal außerhalb des paradiesischen elterlichen Hauses sind, fern von Elios Familie. Im letzten Kapitel beschreibt Elio Treffen der beiden 15 und 20 Jahre später und wie er versucht herauszufinden, was von Ihrer Liebe noch überlebt hat. Dieser Teil ist der melancholischste, dichteste und schönste und fehlt im Film fast vollständig. So viele der poetischen Sätze in diesem Kapitel könnte man einrahmen und an die Wand hängen. Die Sprache ist dicht, intensiv und sehr erotisch, dabei aber wunderschön und nie pornografisch.. Emotional aber nicht kitschig. Die Sätze sind teilweise sehr lang und verwunden: …It would finally dawn on us both that he was more me than I had ever been myself, because when he became me and I became him in bed so many years ago, he was and would forever remain, long after every forked road in life had done its work, my brother, my friend, my father, my son, my husband, my lover, myself. Dieser Satz beschreibt auch gefühlvoll die Essenz dieser Liebe, die vielleicht weit über eine Beziehung hinausgeht. Sie finden sich jeweils selbst durch den anderen. "Call me by Your name and I'll call You by mine". Alles was ein Mann für Elio sein kann, war vereinigt in Oliver. Allumfassend und total, bis hin zum Verschmelzen zu einem gemeinsamen Wesen. Hier werden Vorstellungen aus der Antike wieder erweckt. Von solchen wunderschönen sinnlichen Sätzen gibt es so viele in diesem Buch, hier noch ein Beispiel: From this moment on, I thought, from this moment on – I had , as I'd never before in my life, the distinct feeling of arriving somewhere very dear, of wanting it forever, of being me, me, me, me and no one else, just me, of finding in each shiver that ran down my arms something totally alien and yet by no means unfamiliar, as if all this had been part of me all my life and I'd misplaced it and he helped me find it. Der Autor arbeitet auch mit der Vorstellung von gespiegelten Liebhabern, die den jeweils anderen bei dem eigenen Namen nennen, Das Symbol Ihrer Verbundenheit und Einheit (und Gleichheit), wobei die Spiegelung auch ein eindeutig queeres Element der Geschichte bildet. Auch die beiden Namen sind bewusst gewählt: Wenn man das V und das R aus OLIVER entfernt, bleibt OLIE übrig, aus dem man ELIO bilden kann. Oliver ist in Elios Augen die vollkommenere und bessere Version von sich selbst. Er schaut zu ihm auf, vergöttert ihn, will zugleich bei ihm sein und er sein. Man kann das im wahren Leben bei den sogenannten „Boyfriend Twins“ beobachten. Auch der Austausch von Körperflüssigkeiten wird hier zu einem philosophischen Akt: I believe with every cell in my body that every cell in yours must not, must never, die, and if it does have to die, let it die inside my body. Wichtig ist hier auch, dass die Pfirsichszene, über die alle sprechen, die den Film gesehen haben, hier wirklich eine starke Symbolkraft hat und hier auf etwas andere Art stattfindet. Ein Grund mehr, das Buch zu lesen. Diese Liebesgeschichte ist sicherlich für alle verständlich und auch nachfühlbar, wenn man nicht gänzlich homophob ist (erste Liebe, Sehnsucht und Verlust und Schmerz). Ich finde, dass jeder sie lesen sollte. Und doch finde ich „universell“ („Coming - Of- Age- Liebesgeschichte“) etwas zu allgemein formuliert. Das wird immer gerne gesagt, um eine Geschichte aufwerten zu wollen und meint, damit ein größeres Publikum ansprechen zu können. Es ist aber auch eindeutig eine queere Geschichte und ersetzte man eine Figur durch eine Frau, würde alles gar keinen Sinn ergeben, z.B. die Spiegelung. Die Poesie dieser Geschichte wäre dahin. Verheimlichen müssen die Jungs Ihre Beziehung. Scham spielt eine Rolle, sowohl bei Elio nach dem ersten Sex mit Oliver als auch bei diesem wegen seiner Eltern, die ihn in eine Anstalt gesteckt hätten, hätten sie davon erfahren. Wenn beide sich küssen wollen, nur dann wenn keiner hinsieht. Ihre Liebe lebt gleichsam nur in einem Arkadien. Elio erzählt seinen Eltern einmal am Frühstückstisch, dass er beinahe mit einem Mädchen Sex gehabt hätte, hier spielt Scham keine Rolle. Ich finde es ganz außerordentlich, wie ein heterosexueller Autor mann-männliches Begehren, Phantasien und Sehnsüchte in derart intensiver und erotischer Weise in Worte gefasst hat, dass ich sämtliche Gefühlszustände durchlebt habe. We had found the stars, you and I. And this is given once only.

J'ai entendu parler de ce livre comme beaucoup au moment de la sortie du magnifique film de Luca Gadaguino . On faisait tout un foin sur la performance du jeune prodige déjà vu dans "Interstellar" et en lice pour l'Oscar du Meilleur Acteur à seulement 20 ans... Mais moi, c'est surtout le nom du scénariste qui a attiré mon attention: James Ivory... l'incarnation de ce qui se fait de beau et d'élégant dans le cinéma britannique (Les Vestiges du Jour, Howards End...). Après avoir vu le film (que j'ai particulièrement aimé, d'ailleurs) , je me suis jetée sur le livre. J'aurais sans doute dû laisser passer quelques mois car au tout début, j'ai retrouvé quasiment phrase pour phrase les dialogues du film. Du coup, j'ai eu une impression de déjà-vu. Mais cela ne m'a pas empêché d'en savourer la poésie à chaque page. L'écriture est à la fois simple et élégante. Il nous donne une impression de pudeur en même temps qu'il nous bouscule... comme l'est Elio, le personnage de 17 ans. Dans le roman, la différence d'âge (qui m'a quelque peu mise mal à l'aise au début dans le film entre Thimotée Chalamet et Armie Hammer) ne se ressent pas autant. Les sens sont en éveil dans cette Italie rêvée du début des années 80 et on n'est focalisé -tout comme Elio qui connait son premier amour - que sur cet amour sensuel naissant. L'auteur ne nous replace pas durement dans un contexte de début de l'épidémie de SIDA ce qui nous conforte dans cette douceur / violence sentimentale mais éloignée des préoccupations extérieures. Mais ce que j'ai adoré dans ce roman c'est - étonnamment - la partie non exploitée par le film: l'après. Alors que je me disais que c'était une bien jolie histoire d'amour, j'ai été cueillie par l’émotion qui ressort de sa suite. Je ne veux pas gâcher le plaisir du lecteur (j'en ai déjà trop dit!) mais Andre Aciman sait faire vibrer la corde que vous sentiez apaisée. J'ai versé ma larme, j'avoue. Et la tirade du père à son jeune fils (que vous trouvez également dans le film et qui l'a incroyablement magnifié) sur l'amour, le regard des autres, la douleur, le chérissement de cette douleur pour ressentir quelque chose et se sentir vivant, le vieillissement du corps... l'urgence de profiter!) est à faire lire à tous les parents à qui il manque les mots pour parler à leur adolescent - garçon comme fille. A lire en anglais bien sûr si vous avez la chance de maîtriser cette langue mais même sans être bilingue (juste "je me débrouille"), l'effort vaut le coup.

"Call Me By Your Name" is a beautiful, evocative, and deeply moving story about Elio and Oliver and how they fell, madly, deeply in love with each other over a few weeks in summer in Italy. I was stunned by its prose, the lyrical quality of the writing and most of all of Elio's intelligent, passionate story. Just read it. There are not enough stars to give this book. It is amazing!

This book broke my heart! I feel it's important to say that before anything else, because I don't want to give you the wrong impression; that this is some kind of fluffy tale of a forbidden holiday romance. That would cheapen it, and despite the occasional sex scenes which might put off a few sensitive readers, this is a story not cheap in any way, shape or form. Call Me By Your Name is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful things I have ever read (probably the most beautiful, second only to Lolita). It is the story of a passionate, intimate and eternal - yet doomed - love between a boy named Elio and his father's house guest, Oliver, and the incredible connection that grows between them over the summer, and culminates in a tragically all-too-brief stay in Rome. The boys grow into men but their friendship, and complete and total yearning for each other, continues to draw them together even as life draws them apart... I'll confess it took me a while to get into this story; lack of dialogue tagging made it hard for me to know who was speaking, and Elio's narrative voice sometimes gets carried away on boring tangents - he's a little too high-brow to be believeable as a 17 year old. But at the same time the innocent, desperate boy's prose, imagery, and obsessive fantasies about the carefree Oliver (which he gradually comes to realise are not as pathetically one-sided as he thought!) are mesmeric, and only a few chapters in I found myself hypnotised by the sights, sounds and smells of the mediterranean, as if I'd been sucked right into Elio and Oliver's beautiful world. As I say, there is a lot of infuriating back and forth, lazy days and 'will they won't they' going on in the beginning, but don't let it put you off, because it's all an effective, agonising build up to when they finally do get together. However...like Cathy and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, the characters in this book suffer from major 'bang their heads together' syndrome. It's infuriating, and I often wanted to scream 'WHY? WHY DON'T YOU JUST BE TOGETHER???!!! ARGH!!' Honestly, it's incredible how much effect this book had on me. The image of Elio and Oliver's kiss in Rome will be forever burned into my imagination as though I was right there with them, and one bit of the book right near the end when Elio is wishing that he could tell Oliver something and just can't...wow, that bit made me put down the book for a moment and just burst into tears. I literally could not stop sobbing for about five minutes - I cannot remember the last time any book made me cry that hard!! (Apart from when Dobby died in Harry Potter, but that's a story for another day...) Call Me By Your Name is both a celebration and a eulogy, and even though it leaves you with a bittersweet ache inside, it also leaves you with the memories of one of the most enduring love stories ever written. Beautiful and heartrending, this is utter class and will stay with me until my dying day. I hope that, one long hot summer in the distant future, I might be brave enough to grab some tissues, curl up, and let Elio and Oliver take me back to Monet's Berm with them.

"I had rehearsed losing him not just to ward off suffering by taking it in small doses beforehand, but, as all superstitious people do, to see if my willingness to accept the very worst might not induce fate to soften its blow." The wisdom Call Me By Your Name leaks is astounding to the point where you ask yourself if it is real. This quote sums up the novel and gives an accurate representation of what you can expect from it: an ode to the first love and, by consequence, the first heartbreak, told in such an honest way you will be left questioning if this book was written about yourself. Call Me By Your Name, by André Aciman, is the story of seventeen year old Elio as he spends his summer in the Italian Riviera and meets Oliver, an American college graduate, guest of his father. What sparks between both is none other than the tension of two people who feel an undeniable attraction for each other, yet fear what may be hidden in the depths of their hearts if they delve further. The internal banter Elio holds with himself, alongside the romance that blooms and the mesmerizing writing style of Aciman make this novel a time stopping read that leaves readers gasping for breath at every turn of the page. The story is told as if Elio was remembering years later everything that happened that summer of 1987. This nostalgia impregnated in the words makes for a nice and smart outlet to prevent the romance from falling into the over-used and tiring archetype of 'insta-love'. Despite everything going down in just a time span of six weeks, it feels fleshed out and organic, a painting crafted from the harmony of all colors. A surprising element this novel has, which is what makes it stand out from others similar to it, is the intensity packed in merely two hundred and fifty pages. Rather than rely on dialogue, Aciman decides to narrate everything through Elio's internal monologue and the acute representation of falling in love is executed so masterfully, the intensity is sometimes even scary. He manages to capture the sexual tension and the desires Elio feels so accurately, everyone, no matter their sexual orientation will see themselves in him at one point or another of their lives. This went so far that, at times, it felt autobiographical. Yet this story is not only about the beauty of love, but rather about the toxicity of infatuation. And underlying all those themes are the pillars of a problematic society we still live in today: the demons that are bred by the world and left to hatch inside teens who have no one to look up to, who feel as if being gay is wrong, shameful and reprehensible. After Elio has sex with Oliver, he feels guilt for having slept with another man. The saddest part of it all is how a portrayal of life thirty years ago is still applicable today with no alteration what so ever, for those engulfing waves of shame still have to be swum against by many LGBT+ people today. In the end, Call Me By Your Name is a goodbye letter, from beginning to end: a futile attempt at forgetting and moving forward that will make most readers feel grateful they could overcome that first romance and learn to love again. This masterpiece crafted by Aciman leaves readers with a bittersweet aftertaste, feeling both hollow and fullfilled, for it is not fair. Not fair for two people who left such marks on each other to be unable to move on, their hearts forever dazed in the summer haze of 1987 in the Italian Riviera, with only the cicadas and waves of the sea as background music.