The controversial, intimate, “romance” first published in early 2007 by Anrdé Aciman, which later became a blockbuster film ten years later, receiving widespread critical acclaim is on every reader’s “To Read List”, but is it worth it?

 

The novel itself feels like a different universe of Elio and Oliver’s (played by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer respectively) and we can do nothing but watch. The masterpiece drips with desire as it spins a story of first love and coming of age. The insecure teenager falls in love with a cocky American man at their ramshackle, but comfortable 80’s Italian villa. A story about love, loss, and piercing joy in the context of a gay romance.

 

“I started writing Call Me By Your Name as a diversion. I had absolutely no idea it was going to be a story, much less a novel. One April morning I was dreaming about being in an imaginary Italian villa overlooking the sea”

-André Aciman on writing Call Me By Your Name (the Guardian)

 

I fell in love with the characters, but especially Aciman’s rich and quiescent writing. I love that the book is etched and carved with memories, as if they were mine. The book feels immediate and distant at the same time. As if I am in the moment, but that moment was 10 years ago. Which resembles with Elio and Oliver’s relationship, carnal and abstract. There is no antagonist, and no ending because their story continues on in “Find Me”, another novel worth reading.

 

By the end of the story, I felt as though I had lived Elio’s life. All those memories described were just mere words on pages, and Oliver was not real. A real page-turner I couldn’t put down. Constantly overwhelmed by Elio’s emotions and enduring for his lover who was ten years older. It might just be the most heart breaking, but beautiful relationships the world has seen. Everyone should read it at least once