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BACK COVER SUMMARY:
During a restless summer on the Italian Riviera, a powerful romance blooms between seventeen-year-old Elio and his father's house guest, Oliver. Unrelenting currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire threaten to overwhelm the lovers who at first reign indifference to the charge between them. What grows from the depths of their souls is a romance of scarcely six week's 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 they both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.
I... I don't know what to say about this book other than to prepare some tissues. And yes you read that summary correctly, this is in fact an LGBT book. (though people keep saying it is because of the plot and characters' desires despite the fact that there are a lot more hetero moments than gay, even in the movie)
This book perfectly describes the summer feeling, not because it is set in the Italian summer, but because, in a book with zero images whatsoever, the language makes you feel like it is through senses amongst the characters. Aciman's language in this book feels so natural and highly descriptive and pensive, giving away a lot of thought and emotion of what the main character, Elio, feels about having an intense relationship with Oliver. Every line in this book could have the potential to be an inspiring quote.
When I read this, I felt like really losing myself into the void of pure jubilance and melancholy mixed in with warmth which is all put into the most satisfying word, everything is so pretty, everything is so mindful and this book is indeed a miracle.
Aciman has put so much thought into his words in this book that the paragraphs are extended wildly (in Shakespearean terms this is considered a soliloquy), a good majority of the hundreds of pages in this book are based on Elio's thoughts. It felt like being inside someone's head and seeing through their eyes and what they act upon.
Trying not to give away to many details haha.
Anyway, I really recommend anyone to read this book, especially in the summer for extra effect for instant mind-calming ecstasy. However, consider these catches:
THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR: Overtime, reading all about the thoughts and the extended paragraphs may lead you to lose interest, and focus and you may end up being bored of the story. There is too many to take in so I advise not to read quickly and only use the time you have to digest each word.
That being said, it is easy to literally lose yourself. You might get lost and not know what is happening because there are just, so many to endure and read through.
And most importantly THIS BOOK IS VERY VERY VERY INTIMATE AND SEXUAL. TO THOSE WHO HAVE READ IT, HERES A MILDLY CONFLICTING IMAGE BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT:
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Yeah I'm not joking. A part of Elio's racing thoughts contain, lust. So much of it when it comes to thinking about Oliver, and among.... well it's kind of a spoiler. ughhhughhug boy be horny as hell.
If you are not comfortable with reading sexual language then this book is an automatic no-no. But grow up and read it because it's still wonderful.
OUT OF CONTEXT PASSAGES:
... which was yet another way of asking, What is life without this?, which was why, in the end, it was I, and not he, who blurted out, not once, but many, many times, You'll kill me if you'd stop, you'll kill me if you'd stop, because it was only my way of bringing full circle the dream and the fantasy, me and him, the longed-for words from his mouth to my mouth back into my mouth swapping words from mouth to mouth, which was when I must have begun using obscenities that he repeated after me, softly at first, till he said, "Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine." which I'd never done in my life before and which, as I said my own name as thought it were his, took me to a realm I never shared with anyone in my life, before or since.
...
"Look," he interrupted. "You had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you. In my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away, or pray that their sons land on their feet soon enough. But I am not such a parent. In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don't snuff it out, don't be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we'd want to be forgotten is no better. 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 as not to feel anything - what a waste!" I couldn't begin to take this all in. I was dumbstruck. "Have I spoke out of turn?" he asked. I shook my head
...
He looked at me and smiled. It cheered me. Perhaps because I knew he was taunting me.
Twenty years was yesterday, and yesterday was just earlier this morning, and morning seemed light-years away.
"I'm like you," he said. "I remember everything." 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, and, as you did back then, look me in the face, hold my gaze, and call me by your name.
