A review by vneusc
Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I can't decide if I hate it or mildly appreciate it. I have never been more uncomfortable in my entire life. I won't lie, I came into reading this book with expectations – expectations of a bittersweet and heartbreaking story of a forbidden love set in some idle town in Italy. For the most part, that's precisely what I got. But, what I did not expect, though it should not have surprised me, was that I would be privy to the romantic and sexual obsessions of Elio. And wow! did I hate every.damn.moment.

Bordering on creepy and obsessive, having to listen to read Elio's mental gymnastics as he lusted for Oliver nearly made me want to throw up, hurl, and actually step away from the story. If you came here, foolishly like I did, for some kind of bittersweet and forbidden romance then look away. This is a story of an insanely horny obsessive teenager and a slighty?? predatory guy
Spoiler who managed to have sex with the entire town, including Elio's same-aged cousin
who both play mind games when really all they want to do... is
Spoilerfuck each other
.

I tried, I really tried to like this book. And, yes, there were some parts where I understood why it's so loved, but I don't know if those fleeting poetic moments outweigh the utter disgust and loathing I experienced while reading this book. I'll leave my "favourite" quotes from both sides of the spectrum and you can decide for yourself if this book is really worth reading. Marking for spoilers because you don't deserve to read what I read so beware 3

Poetic or pretentious?
He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dreammaking and strange remembrance.

We belonged to each other, but had lived so far apart that we belonged to others now.

Perhaps we were friends first and lovers second. But then perhaps this is what lovers are.

Time makes us sentimental. Perhaps, in the end, it is because of time that we suffer.

We had found the stars, you and I. And this is given once only.


Regretful passages
The firm, rounded cheeks of the apricot with their dimple in the middle reminded me of how his body had stretched across the boughs of the tree with his tight, rounded ass echoing the color and shape of the fruit. Touching the apricot was like touching him...placing the apricot in my palm he was giving me his ass to hold, or that, in biting the fruit, I was also biting into that part of body...if I dared to bite that far, his apricock.

SpoilerThe bruised and damaged peach, like a r*pe victim, lay on its side on my desk, shamed, loyal, aching, and confused, struggling not to spill what I'd left inside.

I kept repeating to myself, looking inside the suit for something more personal yet than his smell and then kissing every corner of it, almost wishing to find hair, anything, to lick it, to put the whole bathing suit in my mouth

I put his pillow over my face, kissed it savagely, and wrapping my legs around it...It took less than a minute

Spoiler I wanted him dead too...If I didn't kill him, then I'd cripple him for life, so that he'd be with us in a wheelchair and never go back to the States. If he were in a wheelchair, I would always know where he was, and he'd be easy to find. I would feel superior to him and become his master, now that he was crippled.

If having a weird obsession with skin, feet, and fruit; sniffing and wearing someone else's bathing suit, and fantasising about hurting a man for power and control is poetic then I don't want it.

p.s. as much as I love Armie Hammer, I do not recommend listening to the audiobook and having the man who is supposed to play the movie adaptation of the love interest read to you Elio being horny all while you're doing the dishes.
p.p.s. I really hope the movie will be worth the trouble of reading this...
all the p.s. i hate myself for reading this.
p.s. i wonder if Oliver has any redeeming qualities. after all, this is all told from the perspective of Elio. on second thought..?
update. armie hammer sucks ass and i can only wonder how timmy felt on set with this excuse of a man :/
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