Shelving: Call Me By Your Name

Books Inc. in the Castro

I don't do reading projects, but my official-unofficial goal for this years is to read more fiction, specifically more novels. I read a lot, but always come up short on novels, either abandoning them midway or skipping ahead to the steamy parts. (I'm pretty sure this makes me an overall "bad reader," or at least that's what my more literary friends tell me.)

Call Me By Your Name , published about five years ago, is the first novel for Andre Aciman, and essayist known mostly for his memoir, Out of Egypt. Aciman, a Proust scholar, wears his influences on his sleeve, but that might be the only issue I have with this book. Set in Italy in the 80s, Call Me By Your Name, is about an unexpected romance between two men, Elio and Oliver. Taken at face value, the narrative is pretty simple, but it's also one of the most beautifully crafted love stories I've read in a long time.

When the book was first published, a handful of early reviewers reacted predictably to the sometimes graphic descriptions of sex, which is disappointing because while sex is an integral part of the story, the need to call attention to the fact that, yes, two men are having sex, says volumes about how we, even in the 21st century, scandalize intimacy between men. In an interview with Bookslut,  Aciman says:

"What I find strange is how some reviewers have reacted to the very frank and graphic intimate scenes. We're in 2007. But no: people like sex, but they like it missionary. Yet the sex scene are no more trenchant and honest than are the psychological scenes. The two go together."