They call each other by their names because Oliver “is more myself than I am” as Elio explains.Įlio’s father acknowledges how rare Elio and Oliver’s connection is. Their connection gives them the freedom to be real and honest. Fearing that humans might become too powerful, Zeus split them apart, punishing them to a life in search of their other half. Accordingly, humans were originally created with four arms and four legs, as well as a head with two faces. What it means to stand next to him or her as he or she reveals his true self to you, and to vow to truly love the person in front of you.Įlio and Oliver’s love reminds me of the myth of soulmates in Greek Mythology. What it means to love another human being. This love is determined by the reality of feelings and intimacy. Call Me By Your Name is not a cheesy rom-com with beautiful actors who have wonderful skin, bleached teeth, and faked smiles.

What touches me most about this book is its honesty. They sleep with each other, see each other naked, speak out what they never dared to talk about before, they discover each other’s bodies with its flaws and imperfections. They find a love that allows them to be who they truly are, without having to hide their true selves. What Elio and Oliver do not dare to wish for, they find in each other. Elio’s constant fight with the shame he feels for what he feels, his longing for being intimate with another human being, his fear of being neglected are one of the purest and most honest accounts of a young man trying to love and be loved I have ever read about. Aciman expresses what no other author has expressed before. Reading the novel for the second time after experiencing love for the first time myself, I was struck by the descriptions of shame and intimacy. Starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. Call Me By Your Name directed by Luca Guadagnino. Elio and Oliver find what they never dared to wish for: intimacy. Their love seems to be driven by desire but it is more than that. In the course of the summer weeks, Elio’s obsession with Oliver travels on the edge of hatred and fascination, uncertainty and passion. It touches you in a way it hasn’t touched you before.Ĭall Me By Your Name is the story of a lifechanging romance between Elio, an adolescent boy, and Oliver, the summer guest at his parent’s villa on the Italian Riviera. Why? Simply because André Aciman’s novel is one of those books you can read again and again, and everything you do, you read it differently. With the release of the sequel last December, I planned to reread Call Me By Your Name. I read this book for the first time back in 2017.

Call me by your name book andre aciman