Written by André Aciman
📒 What It’s About
Elio, a intelligent teenage boy living in a small town in Italy, has Summer scholar visitors every summer to his house. One summer an American scholar from Columbia, Oliver, comes to stay and awakens something in Elio which he had been questioning about for a while. What unfolds is a beautiful relationship between the two that leaves them both forever changed.
🔍 How I Discovered It
A friend had recommended the book to me after gushing about and obviously the movie getting lots of praise made me interested to read the book
🧠 Thoughts
♥️ What I Liked About It
I really enjoyed the book, not a genre I typically read but the relationship between the two was so well realised it was hard not to be engrossed in the book. From the subtleties at the start and Elio questioning his sexuality, not in an explicit way but a very subtle implicit way that was handled with so much care and attention, to the beautifully slow days they spent together towards the end. I absolutely loved the way the book was written, the punctuation was loose and the sentences both flowed naturally and suddenly changed topic to simulate Elio’s thoughts, it was masterfully done nad honestly emulated the way our brains work by jumping topics and thoughts so well it was such a quick read.
I loved how Elio could go from hating Oliver and focusing on the littlest of things, obsessing over it and then could suddenly have glossy eyes and fall back in love at the simplest of actions, it was so natural. The way he “came out” to himself during the course of the book was also beautiful and the part where he talks to his Dad implicitly about Oliver was especially touching.
💔 What I Didn’t Like About It
I liked far more of the book than I disliked but I felt as if the ending was too rushed, a whole section of the book is dedicated to about 1 day and then the final section is years of their life, it was a little jarring and would’ve been nice to see more of how Elio coped with Oliver leaving.
🥰 Who Would Like It?
I think anyone who wants to read a touching love story or people who enjoy more character driven stories
💬 Quotes
“Is this why people say “maybe” when they mean “yes,” but hope you’ll think it’s “no” when all they really mean is, Please, just ask me once more, and once more after that?”
“Or was he oblivious, the way the most perceptive individuals fail to pick up on the most obvious cues because they’re simply not paying attention, not tempted, not interested?
“Time makes us sentimental. Perhaps, in the end, it is because of time that we suffer.”
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