"Call Me By Your Name" by André Aciman, Review

Started: 3rd July, 2024

Finished: 12th July, 2024

It's quite a challenge to find the right words to express the extent to which this book has moved me. The title itself, "Call me by your name", is a profound metaphor - the idea of discovering love so powerful the concept of oneself is intertwined with another, becoming an extension of one's own soul "my body, my heart - cried out for his".

Call Me By Your Name truly is a gift to the sensitive soul. It has described my innermost turmoils with frightening accuracy; from grappling with multiple conflicting fascets of personality, to the deep seeted need for raw and vulnerable connection.

"as all superstitious people do, to see if my willingness to accept the very worst night not induce fate to soften its blow" - a tendency I often observe in my self, articulated with great elegance.

This book invites its audience to read slowly. It made my brain itch, twist and turn to make connections and come to conclusions. The process of registering information slowly, carefully and diligently, is infinitely rewarding.

Most view teenage lust and desire with disdain, mockery, and bellitlement. I particularly appreciate this book because it treats this subject with such gentleness, grace, and utmost respect - almost portraying it as something sacred. It presents the extremities of this emotion, adorned with such lyrical almost melodious language, in a way that is restful to the soul. Scenes of physical intimacy effectively fulfil the desires of those longing for stark and raw vulnerability, love in its most crude and authentic form. "I had never felt freer or safer in my life" - this is the feeling I one day hope to achieve through love.

I also particularly enjoyed the European summer setting. The Italian way of going about life with perpetual rest and ease, lounging in the simple pleasures of sunlight, ocean breezes, art, and literature, is equivocal throughout. This helped me to calm down, to relax myself. Mundane, simple every-day activities (walking, biking, swimming) are treated with importance in this novel, expanded upon and described at length, given their due respect. This is an aspect of Italian culture I really admire.

The metaphor of the "San Clemente Syndrome" is especially touching - this suggests that our 'love and past history is built upon previous layers that we never got rid of, or just built upon it. These layers and layers make everyone of us who we are, and give us complete and total uniqueness'

In a sense, this book is not only an exhilarating study of character; but also a profound reflection on life and what it means to live:

"We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should 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!" (Again, reinforcing my argument that this book validates and provides solace for those more sensitive in nature)

Certainly, a novel that has helped me grow; both in terms of understanding human behaviour and conducting a further exploration of myself.

Also: I'll never be able to look at peaches the same ever again 🍑