false 98687 0374299218 9780374299217 720 212 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171425057m/98687.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98687.Call_Me_by_Your_Name_A_Novel 56759 Andre Aciman 982 275 5 3 false Sat Feb 09 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 09 12:47:11 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 11 20:15:01 -0800 2009

So here are a couple of passages from a book in which every word is beautiful:


"I shut my eyes, say the word, and I'm back in Italy, so many years ago, walking down the tree-lined driveway, watching him step out of the cab, billowy blue shirt, wide-open collar, sunglasses, straw hat, skin everywhere."


"You can always talk to me. I was your age once, my father used to say. The things you feel and think only you have felt, believe me, I've lived and suffered through all of them . . . yet I know almost every bend, every tollbooth, every chamber in the human heart."

"The word "friendship" came to mind. But friendship, as defined by everyone, was alien, fallow stuff I cared nothing for. What I may have wanted instead, from the moment he stepped out of the cab to our farewell in Rome, was what all humans ask of one another, what makes life livable . . .

" . . . I began to wonder what all this talk of San Clemente had to do with us - how we move through time, how time moves through us, how we change and keep changing, and come back to the same. One could even grow old and not learn a thing but this. . . . All that remains is dreammaking and strange remembrance."

There are many jewels of understanding in this book, I can't recommend it enough, especially for writers, and more especially for writers interested in a marvelously sensitive portrayal of m/m love. But even beyond that, it is a portrayal of our very human desire to connect in a deep way with another soul, regardless of that person's gender. ]]>