Call Me By Your Name

In 2018, I got to experience the joys of marriage when I married my childhood/lifelong best friend. During my honeymoon flight, I was introduced to an amazing work of art - Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman (synopsis at the end). At the time, I was only able to experience the film but instantly fell in love with the story.

This year on a flight home (sensing a pattern here), I finally binge read the novel. This book was even more amazing than the film (as is usually the case). The story of Elio and Oliver is more than just a romance story. It is also a coming of age story, a self-discovery story, a story about societal pressures and prejudices, a story about art and beauty, a story about family, and a story about the masks we wear in the different roles we play in life.

If you are looking for a cute romance novel with the usual tropes this is not the book for you. However, if you want to experience a bittersweet romance which explores the rawness of longing and desire, while also examining the concepts of friendship and sexual identity then I highly recommend this novel. This book is beautifully written and will demand that you experience a wide range of emotions, but will leave you feeling glad that you embarked on that journey.

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Call Me by Your Name is a 2007 novel by American writer André Aciman that centers on a blossoming romantic relationship between an intellectually precocious and curious 17-year-old American-Italian Jewish boy named Elio Perlman and a visiting 24-year-old American Jewish scholar named Oliver in 1980s Italy. The novel chronicles their summer romance and the 20 years that follow.