My Favorite Read - 7 - Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

"Call me by your name and I will call you by mine". Yes.

'Let me think of the right words.' is what I kept telling myself for last one month, trying to put off writing this review, but I think it's time. I already bought a hardcopy of this book to add to my personal library. Yes, that's how much I loved it.

This was the first audiobook I listened to when I started with Audible in May this year. I wanted to try some simple book to see if I would even enjoy Audible (considering I am a huge fan of books I can hold vs digital) and this book had good review for narration. So boom, I downloaded it and am glad I did.

I don't know if it's the story itself or Armie Hammer's voice or the combination of both that made this love story so enticing.

I don't read much of romantic novels, so I am not sure what other good novels or writers are out there in this genre. But Aciman definitely has my heart for "Call me by your name."

Am not going to get into the summary of the plot or categorize it - it's a romantic novel, that's that.

A Love, so strong, not bound by age or gender or any societal laws; described so beautifully, passionately and emotionally, that I absolutely fell in love again.

Elio, Oliver, Liguria, Rome and Later! These summarize the entire novel for me.

(Of course, let's not get too peachy here. You will know what I am talking about if you end up reading the book.)

I have seen trailer of the movie based on this book, and have read great reviews about Timothée Chalamet's performance of Elio. But am not sure I want to watch the movie, atleast not yet. I don't want to ruin the good aftertaste from reading this book.

I love the scene of Elio playing a piece of “Postillion’s Aria” from Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother in the manner of Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni would play. And how Oliver says "I don't believe you changed it again". That whole scene is so playful, flirtatious, young and innocent, while being swallowed by their longing hearts.

It's hard to say why some books move us, for instance this one is not some out of the world story, but it had me mesmerized till the end.

There are many excerpts in the book that pop on my favorite list, but if I have to pick one for right now, I think it would be the monologue by Elio's Dad with Elio, especially below lines.

"In your place, if there is pain, nurse it. And if there is a flame, don’t snuff it out. Don’t be brutal with it. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster, that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything ― what a waste! "

And of course, my favorite quote

"He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is a dream making and strange rememberance."

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