I had high hopes that, sadly, weren't met.
Might contain spoilers!
I am so sad to join the chorus of disappointed voices regarding this book. When a follow-up to Call Me By Your Name was announced, I was so excited! I loved the first book - as well as the movie - and really hoped for more information about how the lives of Oliver and Elio turned out after the ending of CMBYN. While I actually never imagined to find the two characters together in this book, I did still imagine them to actually be the main characters... That was, sadly, not the case... And that hurt the book. And me 😢
👎 What I Disliked 👎
First half: As many other reviewers have commented, this book is 260 pages long. Of those 260 pages, the first 130 are about a whirlwind romance between Elio's father, Samuel, and a woman he meets on the train, Miranda. The two fall in love in less than 12 hours. I didn't mind their romance so much. What I disliked was that Elio wasn't really part of this narrative. His story comes afterwards. And there was a complete disconnect between the two stories - between the two halves of the book even. The first half felt inconsequential, unnecessary and pointless.
Elio and Oliver: It almost felt like Aciman didn't want to write another story about Elio and Oliver. He dedicates a paltry 12 pages to them as a couple. And honestly, it felt like a throw away. Like Aciman just wanted to humor us in spite of himself. Like he was just throwing it in there so we would be somewhat satisfied.
Stitches: Like I said earlier, this was really several stories in one - and they felt disconnected, especially the first and second half. Samuel, Elio's father gets the first half. Elio gets a bit more than a firth, Oliver gets even less than that and Elio and Oliver together get 12 pages. But the first half was my least favourite. Still, I could have liked it if that was the only story. I really wanted Aciman to pick a story and run with it in stead of stitching together 3 separate stories. It really didn't work for me at all.
Uniqueness?: Parting thoughts - if you're going to do three separate stories, at least make them unique! Samuel and Elio's stories were, essentially, the exact same. They had the same themes, the same emotions and feelings. It didn't work for me at all. It felt like I was reading the same thing twice over.
