Find Me

What a strange little book. The whole time I was reading it, I couldn't help but feel that it was semi-rushed out to capitalize on the success of the Call Me By Your Name movie. I bet he had these vignettes floating around in his head for a while, and being able to write short stories that only thematically connected probably helped him get the thing done more quickly than if he had to write a full novel.

I liked it, but didn't love it. That Aciman technique of minutely dissecting every tiny shade of physical touch, facial expression, glance, word, tone, feels fresh and honest and beautiful when the book opens, but it started to grate on me and become annoying by the middle. For much of the book, the writing is sublime, but there are moments where he gets too abstract, or oppositely, too detailed, which pulls you out. He's at his best when the writing lands as he no doubt wants it to - universal, relatable, expressing meaning that you didn't even realize was contained in human interactions.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the titles of each section of the book - although I will admit that the middle section, Cadenza, felt structured like a musical cadenza. Hitting various themes of Elio's life, climaxing to the final trill - then leaving off in the middle, not really an ending, letting you wonder what happened to Elio and Michel.

I rejected the ending - the idea that Elio and Oliver somehow end up happy together long in the future is both heartbreaking and wildly unrealistic. When I saw Aciman speak, he said he found it difficult to peer inside Oliver's head, it's a character he doesn't identify with - and this came across in the book. The Oliver section is the most opaque, it's difficult to really wrap yourself around that character.

I'm glad I read this, but I don't think it's a must-read by any means, like Call Me By Your Name.