I recently read the second part of Call me by your name and honestly, I had really high hopes for the book.
Call me by your name had left me shattered and it's been years since I've read it (when I hear the song Forth of July I'm still getting watery eyes, call me sentimental lmao). And when I read the caption of the book and saw the reviews I was literally in heaven. But it is so disappointing.
Don't get me wrong, the book is lovely and really well written, but there's so much wasted potential. So many plotholes and the timeskips are sometimes confusing. And for me, the end is rushed….
Has anyone else read the book and can maybe open my eyes? Or agree?
PS: I still recommend the book. It heals the broken "call me by your name"-heart and the philosophical parts are over the top!
by Spirited-Ad-7767
10 Comments
totally agree! I was so excited to read it and to this day it’s the most disappointed I’ve ever been after finishing a book. I loved CMBYN so entirely that my expectations were wayy to high 😭😭 I just looked for my goodreads review and I said ‘It felt empty and watered down. If you let Enigma Variations wash down a river and then scooped up the left over words this is what you’d be left with’
cmbyn has a special place in my heart. ive read it like three years ago but i still cant get over it. so eventually ive discovered that find my was the second part, but i just can not start reading the book??? i mean ive tried THREE TIMES but i just cant get past the first scene…. i will give it another try since ive heard good things about it but maybe it has to do with what youre saying
I read it right after CMBYN and halfway into the book I was so confused and thought I might’ve picked up a sequel to some other story. Completely unrelated to the original book except a few miserable pages at the end (or chapters, don’t remember). I still don’t know what the point of that book was.
i think i am in the minority here but i actually really liked it. i DID have an adjustment period when i started and realized it is a very different book and isn’t just about elio and oliver. but once i got over that, i found it engaging. and then the end was a bonus! i thought it did wrap up the family drama well and getting to know elio’s dad was cool because we know basically nothing personal about him in the first one. it was kind of like when you are little and your friends’ parents or even your own are sort of furniture in the room. and at some point you realize they have their own internal, complicated world. like seeing your first grade teacher in the supermarket and you are like whaaaaat she exists outside of school?? and even has food preferences??? curious what plot holes bugged you. the pacing and timeline of things could be a little trudgey but i don’t remember being struck by obvious contradictions or anything like that.
“Call Me By Your Name” is on my list. The first book I read by André Aciman was “Harvard Square”, which was SO phenomenal that I’m almost afraid to read CMBYN because I can’t imagine it’s as good! I’d highly recommend “Harvard Square” if you’d like to give him another shot.
Ah man I’ve just started reading this and I’m now I’m worried! CMBYN has really stuck with me for so many reasons and don’t want this to ruin it?? 😕
I thought I was the only one who find the times and other things confusing lolll
Does he have any other good books?
A minha relação com os livros desse autor é intensa e confusa. Eu amei cmbyn, me marcou profundamente. Meu aniversário é na data da música tema do filme, eu ainda era um adolescente iludido e apaixonado quando vi o filme no cinema. Eu li o livro algum tempo depois, mas eu não tenho um costume de ler, por isso demorei um bom tempo pra começar a ler Me Encontre. Comecei o livro e fiquei confuso e frustrado. Não só pela ausência do Elio e do Oliver no começo da história, mas também porque não queria ler um romance na perspectiva de um homem hétero idoso (sem ofensas). Passaram anos até que agora eu retomei a leitura. Logo me apeguei ao pai do Elio, e mais ainda quando o próprio apareceu na história. Gostei muito do que se seguiu, me senti enebriado pela paixão descrita na segunda parte e de repente nem lembrava mais do Oliver. O final foi, pra mim, uma generosidade do autor. Será que foi apressado, como li aqui nos comentários, ou será que a ideia era justamente abordar outras histórias e apenas finalizar essa que começou antes? Eu estou agora lendo Variações Enigma e estou novamente nesse processo. Sinto que esse autor gosta de brincar com meus sentimentos. Ele sabe me fazer vibrar e sentir coisas que eu nem lembrava que sentia. Senti o aperto que sentia apaixonado por um menino aos 13 anos de idade, há tanto tempo. E imediatamente corta a história pra outro momento, quase como alguém que me excita, me prende, e me deixa a ver navios. E de certa forma essa frustração também é interessante. Algo a mais que gostaria de falar é que o autor pôs em palavras, nos três livros, coisas que já senti intensamente e nunca soube explicar. Como ele pode me conhecer tão bem? Será que não há mesmo experiências individuais? Ou nós gays estamos todos fadados ao mesmo rito de passagem chamado paixão platônica na adolescência?
I’m so late but omg I just finished it and I feel like the book was just Aciman’s perversions hidden through the lens of CMBYN (which i loved). I think it’s part of a disturbing pattern in his work like there are several age gap relationships and references/scenes that contain incest?? The book was beautifully written but idk it seems off