Call Me By Your Name 👨❤️👨🙍♂️😭
“Call Me By Your Name”, by Andre Aciman, is a love story that unfolds between two young men, 17-year-old Elio and 24-year-old Oliver. Oliver is a handsome, doctoral student from America. He is invited to stay six weeks at Elio’s home in the Italian Riviera, to serve Elio’s father as an academic apprentice. Elio is a shy, intelligent teenager with a love for music and literature. “Call Me By Your Name” takes place in the 1980s, and follows Elio as he narrates his unfolding romance with Oliver, one that neither ever forgets, and one that lasts a lifetime.
“Call Me By Your Name” explores two major themes that I believe to be: compulsive love, and the passage of time. Elio observes Oliver’s every move and habit during the first few weeks of Oliver’s stay. Elio looks for signs of Oliver becoming sexually or romantically involved with anyone and secretly yearns for a relationship with Oliver. I would describe this behavior as compulsive, because Elio wants to continue living his life without the gnawing attraction towards Oliver, yet he constantly thinks of him. Oliver actually drops hints of attraction towards Elio for a while, until the two finally kiss at a valley, much to Elio’s happiness.
Eccentric happiness always comes to an end though. It is interrupted by periods of calm, or sadness, and then again eccentric happiness, thus repeating the cycle. This is another major theme I observed whilst reading “Call Me By Your Name”. The cycle of emotions is accompanied by the passage of time. Oliver eventually has to go back home and continue on with his life, without Elio. They are both sad during this period, but time goes on, and the summer ends. The winter comes, and we see Elio as calm and happy until he receives a call from Oliver. Oliver shares some shocking news that neither of them wants to believe is real. Elio experiences sadness, but readers know that Elio and Oliver will be just fine because the cycle of emotions will resume just as surely as time continues.
“Call Me By Your Name” is a book that makes an impact on readers, regardless of the genre they are accustomed to reading. It has a few parts I would not recommend a person under 13 read, but other than that the book really does live up to its hype. The book wouldn’t have been turned into a 4 time Academy Award-nominated movie if it wasn’t good, therefore, you should read it.
This was a really well written post that I think perfectly captured this book. I also just read this book, and I thought that you did a fantastic job describing the books theme and how you believed it was played out throughout the book. The concept of passing time is part of the book that I find to be really interesting. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog post. It is the second post on this book I've seen, though this was posted first. I liked your focus on the major themes of the book and your argument to read it at the end is solid. Though it is not the kind of book I would check out I will definitely recommend it to some people I know who will. Good work.
ReplyDeleteCall Me By Your Name sounds like an interesting story with a deep plot that is sometimes not seen in romance novels. I thought your observations about their cycles of emotions was really intriguing, and applies to everyone, since we all live thorough ups and downs. Great job on your post!
ReplyDelete