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Yu's Reviews > Call Me by Your Name
Call Me by Your Name
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Love or intimacy is not about saying sentimental words for the sake of saying sentimental words even though you have shared almost nothing and know nothing about one another, nor is it about living in your fantastical dream detached from reality, nor is it about sex or everything that dirtiest mind of the protagonist associates with sex.
This book is nothing but over-sentimental, redundant, hubristic, dishonest words that pretend to convey love and intimacy, but indeed convey nothing but resentment, shallowness, egoism, and the disability to love anyone, not even oneself. I won't pretend to know what true love is, but at least I know that the first step of love is to acknowledge that the person you love is neither yourself nor your illusive creation but someone real and concrete.
If Elio truly thinks this is the love of his life, and he holds onto it for goddamn twenty years (as if adding a time period arbitrarily could convince everyone of how special his love story is), all I can say to him is: Get a life!
PS: This book totally ruined my appetite for fruits.
This book is nothing but over-sentimental, redundant, hubristic, dishonest words that pretend to convey love and intimacy, but indeed convey nothing but resentment, shallowness, egoism, and the disability to love anyone, not even oneself. I won't pretend to know what true love is, but at least I know that the first step of love is to acknowledge that the person you love is neither yourself nor your illusive creation but someone real and concrete.
If Elio truly thinks this is the love of his life, and he holds onto it for goddamn twenty years (as if adding a time period arbitrarily could convince everyone of how special his love story is), all I can say to him is: Get a life!
PS: This book totally ruined my appetite for fruits.
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February 24, 2018
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William2
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rated it 5 stars
Feb 24, 2018 11:45PM
One question: Why has the book made you so angry? Look inward.
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William1 wrote: "One question: Why has the book made you so angry? Look inward."It is exactly after I looked inward that I found out how much I dislike this book.
Is the movie called the same based on thid novel?
Dolors wrote: "Is the movie called the same based on thid novel?"Yes.
Great review, Elie. My wife and I agree with you. She listened to me as I read the book aloud, and eventually gave up on it. And we watched the movie which had similar problems. Simply put, CMBYN is not a good 'love' story, or story period. In my opinion, a better gay love story is the episode San Junipero of Black Mirror.
Dolors wrote: "Is the movie called the same based on thid novel?"Yes. It seems these days the best way to make a lot of people read a book is by making a movie out of it.
It’s not your book. But look at how it’s riled you. Passion is passion. What are you so passionately opposed to this book? I refuse to believe it simply gay bigotry on your part.
George wrote: "Great review, Elie. My wife and I agree with you. She listened to me as I read the book aloud, and eventually gave up on it. And we watched the movie which had similar problems. Simply put, CMBYN i..."Agree. It seems the author doesn't want to present the book as a straightforward love story, but tries so hard to incorporate some Proustian stream of consciousness, memory, notion of time and space into it, which he thinks could compensate for the emptiness of the story itself.
William1 wrote: "It’s not your book. But look at how it’s riled you. Passion is passion. What are you so passionately opposed to this book? I refuse to believe it simply gay bigotry on your part."If you cannot stand that someone despises a book you love (or vice versa) then it is YOU who has serious problems and should (and I am deliberately using your own words here) look inward, if you can.
Markus wrote: "I like your frank opinions Elie."Thanks Markus!
I personally found that the point of the novel was that it WASN’T love and that it WASN’T truly loss. It was a teenager feeling everything very dramatically as teens often do, and never once really trying to label anything or overact his emotions. That was just my personal reading of it though. I thought it was interesting because you’ve written that you think it isn’t portraying these things that it thinks it does, where i felt that it wasn’t trying to portray them.
Jo wrote: "I personally found that the point of the novel was that it WASN’T love and that it WASN’T truly loss. It was a teenager feeling everything very dramatically as teens often do, and never once really..."I totally understand what you mean, and I think your point is legitimate. The author doesn't label the experience anything, probably because he wants to highlight that there is a gap between the reality and the label (since the author is highly influenced by Marcel Proust). However, the author does stress that there is a strong emotional intensity throughout the novel even though the intensity is embedded in nothing. He wants to fill this vacuum by adding a lot of unnecessary self-proclaimed sentimentality and making the experience vague and unlabeled, but I don't think sentimentality or vagueness solves the problem of the lack of substance in this story.
wow i hate this book even more now! Love your review😁
KyserSoze wrote: "wow i hate this book even more now! Love your review😁"Sorry for the late reply. Thank you!
very well said, and your writing is much more beautiful than the author's
Okay, I just completed the book today and was desperately in a need to find someone who had the same opinion as mine, as literally everyone seems to be in love with this book! Personally this is the worst book I've read this year and I definitely won't ever be able to look at fruits normally. There were so many disgusting scenes in this book, I can't even. If anyone wants to read a genuinely good LGBTQIA+ book, Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe or Simon vs the homosepians agenda are some excellent books, way better than the shit that is Call me by your name
Jessica wrote: "very well said, and your writing is much more beautiful than the author's"Thanks Jessica!
Divya wrote: "Okay, I just completed the book today and was desperately in a need to find someone who had the same opinion as mine, as literally everyone seems to be in love with this book! Personally this is th..."Understand how you feel!
Do some of y'all realize it's okay to hate a deeply homophobic book that reinforces the predatory gay stereotype? and that that doesn't make you homophobic?
Elie,I'm intrigued by your review. I have this book but I haven't actually read it, only skimmed through it and quite frankly I do believe that I will end up thinking the way you do! I shall revert!
Lynne wrote: "Elie,I'm intrigued by your review. I have this book but I haven't actually read it, only skimmed through it and quite frankly I do believe that I will end up thinking the way you do! I shall revert!"
Thanks Lynne.
I agree with youThe part that most angered me was the end
It's absolutely ridiculous than Elio has been obsessed with Oliver for twenty years
Absurd.
This is a beautiful movie; however, it's not a beautiful love story. It's loathsome! The character of Oliver is a self-centered user who acts like he doesn't even remember Elio at the end of the book. The worst kind of first experience for a young gay man because it has ruined any kind of real love for a more deserving man.
Just wanted to say this review is absolutely excellent. Someone pointed this out before, but your writing is more beautiful and poignant than CMBYN could ever hope to be.
We all love in different ways? People are actually very very different from each other
"all I can say to him is: Get a life!" xD
Amen. They knew each other for a few weeks twenty years ago! And much of that time they spend having frosty conversations and ignoring each other. One of the more ridiculous parts was when his father goes on and on about how this is a once-in-a-lifetime relationship. What parent thinks that about a teen's summer fling??
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO AGREES. THIS IS NOT LIVE THIS IS AWFUL
When I was younger, I would have probably had the same feelings as you do. Its refreshing to see someone not love a book I really like.Young love is not really reasonable (is any love really?), not that Andre has defined the emotions in one word. A 17 year old emotions and experiences and even self reflection I felt was conveyed quite nicely. His writing is beautiful too.
You don't think that was some of the point?
