Book Review
Title: Find Me (Call Me By Your Name Book 2) by Andre Aciman
Genre: LGBT, Romance, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars
I loved Call Me By Your Name and I can’t wait to see the movie so I couldn’t wait to jump into Find Me straight after. I wasn’t sure where Aciman was going to go with these characters as we get to see Elio and Oliver’s story in full with some snapshots from the next 20 years after the summer they met. I have a feeling that this book is going to go more in depth over what they did with their lives after that summer and in between the snapshots. Elio’s father, Samuel also features heavily in this story and I am excited to see what happens with him as I loved him in Call Me By Your Name. The novel opens with Samuel getting on a train to go see Elio who is currently living in Rome before he heads off to Paris but he has to cancel their meeting that evening as he is covering for a pianist in Naples. On the train Samuel meets a young woman, Miranda and they fall into easy conversation which ends when they arrive in Rome but Miranda invites him to her father’s home and Samuel agrees and they way he has been talking to her and thinking about it makes me think they might have an affair or something like that.
Over the course of this lunch, Miranda and Samuel have a lot of banter between the pair and both feel like there is something more between them. Luckily we learn that Samuel has already gotten divorced at this point in his life so he is currently unattached but Miranda has mentioned that she is currently seeing someone. This doesn’t seem to bother Samuel at all as he has previously mentions that in the past he and his girlfriend at the time cheated on each other and makes it seem like nothing which isn’t something I appreciated as a reader. We are a quarter of the way through the novel and we haven’t seen or heard from Elio once apart from a phone call but I have a feeling that the three sections of the novel are going to focus on one character, so part one is Samuel, and then parts two and three will belong to Elio and Oliver. Honestly there isn’t much besides a lot of dialogue happening right now but hopefully it will pick up soon the way Call Me By Your Name did.
Over the next twelve hours, Samuel and Miranda become lovers and even feel like they are beginning to fall in love. Now some might say this is impossible but thinking back to the first book where Elio thought that a fortnight wasn’t enough time to truly love someone and his father explains that love can happen almost instantly with the right person and it doesn’t seem so farfetched. Despite the age gap between them the pair get along well and even find a passion that both have been missing in their other relationships and Samuel gives Miranda a love for her life and work that she has neve rhad before. By the time Samuel goes to meet up with his son, Miranda tags along and the trio explore Rome. The three of them are also very open with each other as Elio shows his father and Miranda the spot where Oliver kissed him in Rome the night he was drunk and says that he let the only person he has ever truly loved slip away from him and desperately wants to find him again but he doesn’t have the courage to do it which is something that persisted throughout Elio’s life and his father tells him to put aside his pride and find Oliver if he means that much to him and I completely agree with that. However, like in Call Me By Your Name there are some questionable moments in here, like when Miranda asks Samuel to slap her hard and he does apparently for no reason and it is shrugged off when it makes Samuel hard and the pair have sex again but it made me feel a little gross.
The second part of the novel is Elio’s story and the timeline gets a little weird here. Elio’s story takes place 15 years after the events of Call Me By Your Name as several years after Samuel’s part because Elio mentions his father and Miranda still being together and have a child together, his half-brother. Elio’s part takes place over three weeks as he begins a romance with an older man named Michel. Michel and Elio bond over the hold music, specifically classic music has over their lives, Elio because he is a gifted pianist and Michel because of his father’s relationship with music. Obviously, Elio’s relationship with Michel prompts him to begin thinking about Oliver and as he has US tour coming up he decides that he will see Oliver when he is there. Michel obviously sensing that Elio is drawing away from him asks to go with him on the tour but Elio doesn’t really want him to come making me think that he never really moved on from Oliver as he can’t seem to have a long lasting and meaningful relationship with anyone else. He admits as much to Michel when they first begin their relationship and the hold Oliver has over him to this day despite the fact he is the one that had an affair with Elio and decided to get married after when he had the opportunity to be the Elio permanently. The final part of the novel is obviously going to be Oliver’s but at less than 50 pages I am not sure of the impact it is going to have and what it is going to bring to the table.
Oliver’s section is mostly bittersweet but it ties everything together really well. He is at a leaving party with his wife Micol and thinks on his attraction to two guests there, Erica and Paul. Thinking about his attraction to both men and women obviously brings up thoughts of Elio and how he hasn’t moved on from his time in Italy and how he hasn’t really been living despite getting married and having two children. By the time the party is over for the night, Oliver has decided that he is going to return to Italy and to Elio and pray that he is still waiting for Oliver, the same way Oliver has been waiting for him despite being the one who ended things between them. The smallest section at the end shows us Elio and Oliver back together but their relationship is different now they have experienced other loves in between each other. Oliver is still technically married and has his sons to consider and they are also raising Oliver, Elio’s younger brother since his father has died and Miranda travels for work a lot. Seeing this small pieces of domestic bliss is enough to help us recover from all the heart-breaking moment this pair went through. Overall, Find Me was a great sequel to Call Me By Your Name but I just wished we have seen more of Elio and Oliver after they got back together but still a great read.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
コメント