Call me by your name by Andre Aciman

The narrator of this coming of age novel is a 17 year old very accomplished young man who finds he is attracted to men as well as women.  He struggles with all the universal feelings about the object of his affections, a young academic staying with the narrator's family for six weeks in their home on the Riviera.  Those feelings, the intense longing, fear of rejection, the countless ups and downs, are given an edge by the forbidden nature of the act.  He knows his life will never be the same if his desires are fulfilled.  He feels powerful remorse immediately after the longed-for event, and of course, his remorse and declaration he would never do that again quickly dissipates.  I found this a pleasingly intense book. 

There is a visit to Rome, including a party that lasts all night for a poet whose new book was just published.  The poet's favorite was a poem called the San Clemente Syndrome, named for the Basilica which Abby and I visited.  It is notable because the site has an ancient temple to Mithras with several successive Christian churches built over it.  It is like love and memory, the poet says, because there is no first anything, just layers and passageways.   

The lovers part, never to make love again, and only see each other twice in the years after.  Elio, the narrator, tells of his visits to the places they were together and I was reminded of the intensity and confusion of feelings I have when I have returned to places I lived long ago.

Comments

[Stephen Clifford]

I'm not sure I would agree with a conclusion that Oliver and Elio never make love again after Oliver's original six week stay in Italy. They keep in touch over the years, and in the last pages of the book 20 years later, Oliver visits Elio in Italy for an overnight stay, and they each admit that they are happier to see each other again "than they ought to be". On the last page of the book, they agree to go to one of the spots where they had made love, and I'd say it wasn't just to view the scenery.

Elio's father had known about their affair and was dead now. Elio says to Oliver "I know he would have wanted something like this to happen, especially on such a gorgeous summer day".

[Charlotte Self]

I didn't want to believe this when I read it -- and I can see you managed not to let this enter your consciousness -- at the end of Part 3 in a description of the end of their very long first night in Rome it says this was the last night they would ever make love again. So sad.

[Stephen Clifford]

I remember the gut punch of Elio reminiscing that Rome was the last night they would ever make love again. And then page after page about all the years they didn't get back together. The reminiscing ends on page 248....the last page of the book. Real time begins on the next page which is blank. That's when they get back together at San Giacomo and make love again. Acimen's skill is in leading you to this and not ruining the moment with a graphic description.