Call Me By Your Name

Romance

First published: 2007
Print length: 248 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007

Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction

Description

Seventeen-year-old Elio Perlman spends a summer with his family at their villa in northern Italy. Their custom of hosting a doctoral student brings Oliver, a visiting American scholar who works as an intern for Elio’s father. Oliver’s outgoing manner contrasts with Elio’s introspection, and his presence disrupts the younger man’s private space. Elio recognizes his attraction but doubts that Oliver feels the same, wavering before he finally confesses. Their brief romance unfolds amid travel and impending separation, leading to reflection on the different lives people might live. André Aciman’s coming-of-age novel centers this intense relationship in 1980s Italy.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Dense · Lyrical · Poetic · Stream of consciousness

Pace

Measured

Tone

Intimate · Melancholic · Reflective · Wistful

Structure

Nonlinear

Focus

Character · Relationships · Voice

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 4 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

Coming of ageIdentityLoveMemoryMortalitySexuality

About André Aciman

André Aciman is an Italian-American writer and professor whose fiction concentrates on desire as it is examined, postponed, and revised in memory. Born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, he teaches literary theory and Proust at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, a background that accords with his interest in retrospective narration and the mind’s scrutiny of its own motives. His prose is dense and lyrical, often staying close to a character’s shifting interpretations of gestures, silences, and possible meanings. In Call Me by Your Name, the outward action of a summer romance in northern Italy is filtered through Elio’s searching voice, so that swimming, reading, music, and travel acquire momentum from hesitation and obsessive attention. Find Me broadens that intimate method through a four-part structure, moving among Samuel, Elio, and Oliver in distinct voices. Chance encounters and changes of perspective allow Aciman to revisit attachment across time, while his pacing favors reflection over incident and emotional uncertainty over clean resolution.

Find Me Apple Books

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English
ISBN: 9780374299217

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