David S.

Saniana

11HUMSS2102

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

By: André Aciman

The book took a while to get going for me, but that could be due to the fact that I was reading it
irregularly at first; a few pages here, a chapter there. I was quickly engrossed in Aciman's exhilarating
account of a restless summer romance as soon as I sat down without my phone, laptop, or to-do list as a
distraction.

During a sweltering and intoxicating six weeks at the family's cliffside Italian property, seventeen-
year-old Elio and his father's American house guest Oliver are followed. When Elio and Oliver form an
unexpected acquaintance, it quickly turns into a love affair, which is intensified by the balmy Italian
weather and stunning scenery that serves as a backdrop to their burgeoning sentiments. Their love
grows stronger as the novel progresses, but they must face the fact that their summer vacation is
coming to an end.

Call Me By Your Name is an exciting and atmospheric story ripe with poetry and strong prose that
transports readers to the sun-drenched shores of the Italian Riviera. Call Me By Your Name is a beautiful
coming-of-age story about infatuation, intimacy, and overwhelm, as well as love and the suffering that
often follows. It will resonate with readers of all ages and serve as a reminder of the careless and intense
kind of love that fades with the seasons but is lasting and long-lived.

André Aciman portrays in Call Me by Your Name that romantic attraction frequently includes
recognizing oneself in someone else. As Elio, seventeen, embarks on his first serious relationship, he is
intrigued to the similarities he shares with Oliver. After all, they're both Jewish, interested in intellectual
pursuits, and drawn to comparable physical characteristics. These parallels are particularly relevant for
Elio, who is in the process of establishing himself as an adult and determining who he wants to be. As a
result, his attraction to Oliver stems in part from his need to comprehend himself. Aciman, in turn,
indicates that romantic attraction can be a crucial aspect of a person's identity construction, implying
that understanding one's impulses is necessary for understanding oneself.

Aciman also portrays emotional anguish as valuable, unavoidable, and worthwhile throughout the
book. Because the conditions of Elio and Oliver's relationship make it difficult for them to maintain their
connection, Elio knows he'll be heartbroken from the start. Throughout the summer, he grows
increasingly enamored with Oliver, despite the fact that he knows he'll leave for good at some point.
This is one of the reasons he doesn't pursue Oliver right away; he knows it won't work out in the end.
His yearnings, however, finally become painful in and of themselves, and he is heartbroken that Oliver
has not taken the initiative to establish a relationship. Around this time, he starts to have the feeling
that if he doesn't act on his feelings now, he'll regret it later. As a result, he casts aside his reservations
and plunges in with reckless abandon, well aware that this connection would hurt him but unwilling to
let it detract from an otherwise good experience. Aciman, on the other hand, contends that the only
thing worse than heartbreak is regret, because at the very least, difficult events might teach us
something. Regret, on the other hand, depletes one's resources.