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Matthew wrote on 03/18/2011:

I was sure I would like Andre Aciman's novel "Call Me By Your Name"after reading it's synopsis and mostly favorable reviews at numerous sights on the internet. Unfortunately I hated it. To begin with I found this would-be love story both contrived and pretentious. Elio and Oliver are just so smart and beautiful and cultivated. We know this because at great length the author tells us so. But all his many words read like hearsay because he doesn't allow any of his characters to actively live and breathe. Nor do they speak from the heart. They mainly just sit around and think. Thereby they never truly reveal themselves. Despite Aciman's grandiose verbosity, everyone remains in a single word - hollow. Furthermore, the author uses too many questionable similes that run on forever. Many don't make sense, others are just dumb.(the apricot/Oliver's ass? Come on.) And who carefully inseminates a pitted peach and leaves it on his desk? And who would ever just happen to come along and then eat it? As if nauseating contrivances aren't excruciating enough, sentences and paragraphs are so long, boring and overworked, one loses the train of thought. Moreover, it was impossible to care about our central character Elio, when as he's over- analytically telling us how much he adores and yearns for Oliver he's getting it on with some chick. Why? Is this supposed to tell us how masculine and therefore desirable he is? Probably. It doesn't work though. Whatever his orientation, Elio comes off as a spoiled and insufferably self-absorbed drama queen who gets what he deserves. Life alone.