Question about the ending (spoiler inside)

[Rob]

Watched the movie three times. End up wet eyed. Reread the book’s last pages three times looking for Oliver to hint, just hint, that his leaving is not the last word in their relationship.

[Jimpanzee]

Thanks for your two cents, Avidreader.

You address falling in love -- and I agree with what you wrote -- but I specifically mean CRAZY in love, the moon and the stars in love. Does that happen only once?

[Avidreader]

Jimpanzee wrote: "Thanks for your two cents, Avidreader.

You address falling in love -- and I agree with what you wrote -- but I specifically mean CRAZY in love, the moon and the stars in love. Does that happen on..."

Jimpanzee: I think it can happen more than once. It has to do more with keeping our capacity to dream alive. As we grow old, we become more cautious and perhaps that is what makes us less likely to fall crazy in love. The phrase brought me back to the speech by Elio's dad, when he says that our souls and bodies are given to us only once. That's factual but the part about falling in love that deeply only once sounds to me like an exaggeration.

[Avidreader]

Mymymble: I think the book is very realistic and touches people very deeply. I've been myself wondering about choices made many years ago, asking myself if it would be worthwhile to change anything now.

[Rob]

Am I missing something?
"Beneath us was his rock, where he sat at night, where he and Vimini had whiled away entire afternoons together. “She’d be thirty today,” he said.

This is 20 years later: Vimini wasn't ten years old when she and Oliver whiled away the afternoons.

What am I missing?

[Avidreader]

Rob: Somewhere else, I added up the years and it seemed that two years went by from the summer at the villa up to the point went Oliver went back to tell Elio he was getting married. Does this help?

[Rob]

This is the very last section of the book.

'We spoke about everything but. But we’ve always known, and not saying anything now confirmed it all the more. We had found the stars, you and I. And this is given once only. Last summer he finally did come back. It was for an overnight visit, on his way from Rome to Menton...

...As we toured the patio overlooking the huge expanse of blue before us, I stood by and watched him lean on the balustrade overlooking the bay. Beneath us was his rock, where he sat at night, where he and Vimini had whiled away entire afternoons together. “She’d be thirty today,” he said...

...“I know.” “She wrote to me every day. Every single day.” He was staring at their spot. I remembered how they’d hold hands and scamper together all the way down to the shore. “Then one day she stopped writing. And I knew. I just knew. I’ve kept all her letters, you know.” I looked at him wistfully. “I’ve kept yours too,” he immediately added, to reassure me, though vaguely, not knowing whether this was something I wanted to hear.

It seems that this is 20 years later. I am confused still.

[Rob]

Thanks, mate. I have read and re-read and could not see how it could be "thirty" but sometimes when there is a bit of jumping around in a story this could lead to a few errors. Or, simply, a misunderstanding on the part of the reader when there is no error.

I just published a book with lots of jumping around and one day- just a couple of weeks away from going to print AND with loads of editorial input- I found I was off by two or three days and even a month out over the course of a couple of chapters, So, with a large calendar in front of me, I managed to make the corrections. Point being: I am a bit sensitive to timing errors.

[Avidreader]

Re-reading the book, I went through the section where Elio introduces Vimini to Oliver. He says she is 10 years old but what I found most interesting is that Elio says that he and Vimini share the same birthday. This means that Oliver chose Elio's birthday to visit the villa 20 years later. To me this is another indication that it was not an ordinary visit but something much more trascendental.

[Wini]

this book was changed my mind.

[Jimpanzee]

"She'd be thirty today" doesn't necessarily equal "She'd turn thirty today", though it might.

[Avidreader]

I think it does. Now, I believe Oliver comes back on Elio's birthday to stay for good. Anyway, that's the ending I would like to see to a sequel and the story for it to make sense.

[Avidreader]

I just finished reading the book for a second time today. I've watched the movie twice at the cinema and once on a plane. I believe I've cross referenced every mention of a book within the novel, and I've looked up the lyrics of the whole soundtrack. This movie and book have profoundly impacted me. Still, I keep on discovering new things. For instance, this time I realized that after the speech by Elio's father, Elio makes a note to ask his father about his life. Elio says he had heard stories about women in his father's life but he had never heard anything indicating that he may have liked men as well. Also, Elio's response to a lady he is talking to in Rome at the bookstore nearly brought me to tears. He said friends were missing in his life and he would give anything not to lose one friend he was bound to lose soon. The lady replied, you are saying lots, my friend, but tonight we are only discussing short poems. Also, I found new meaning in the dialogue between Oliver and Elio when they finally meet in the villa 20 years later. Are you glad to be here?
Are you glad that I came? I think they are both looking for reassurance that restarting the relationship is the right thing to do. Then, they tell each other how each remembers 'everything.' I'm like you Elio, I remember everything, says Oliver. Also, the fact that their final goodbye is only written in Elio's imagination indicates that it actually never happens. To me, the book's final message is: it is never too late to pursue love or passion.

[Jimpanzee]

Avidreader -- thoughtful post. That's a romantic final message you find there and a hopeful one as well. I'd like to think that you're right.

[Scott]

I watched the movie 3 times but in the winter.and read the book 3 times but in winter.andres words or so picturesque that I can feel myself in the pages and to movie seems like a home movie the way it was filmed that I can actually see myself there.was going watch it again but told my self just wait till the summer before you do.so that even the experience of the weather you can have.when I watch it ,it literally breaks me for a few day longer if I let it.i love the music but there hard to listen to without me breaking in tears.im never sure why.ive been in love several times.its sad when it ends but not devastating.maybe cause I haven't had a love that last.i was telling my ex-wife last week.and we been divorced 20 years.i told her breaking up wasn't the hardest part.the hardest part to me was feeling like it was never really in the first place that she didn't love me like I loved her.i remember the first feelings of love.the first time you see each other naked an the first time we made love.an to me that's special there's a certain feeling that comes with that .an to feel like that feeling was not real.well that's hard to take.i have loved men to an those experiences of the one I loved was just as special if not more.anyway I'm going watch movie again next week suppose to be hotter weather.i really want a sequel even if it's just book.i need the closure .I want to know what happened in the 20 years and what happened after the 20 years .but I need happy ending.any way just had to get that out.

[Scott]

I'm watching it again Friday night when I get off work.such a beautiful story and movie

[Avidreader]

I don't know that I could read another novel by Aciman at this point. I'm still recovering from Call Me By Your Name and figuring out what to do moving forward.

[Marc]

Avidreader wrote: "I don't know that I could read another novel by Aciman at this point. I'm still recovering from Call Me By Your Name and figuring out what to do moving forward."

I read At Swim, Two Boys which cured me of the devastating feeling in my heart over Elio and Oliver.

But the other thing that helped was Aciman reminding that we don't know whether Oliver actually stepped into a taxi the next morning, or perhaps they slept in. ;-) After so many times together in that house, would they miss that final chance, and then perhaps decide it wasn't final?

By now we know a sequel is coming which in a way ruins the spell Aciman cast on us. One can only hope the sequel will be of equal achievement, yet can it?

[Scott]

Has anyone read find me,I read a snippet in vanity Fair,was sad it didn't seem that elio had moved on from Oliver and it was preventing him from finding love.i have read a few spoilers just wondering if anyone had read it.im going to get it the 29

[Artgroupie]

Scott wrote: "Has anyone read find me,I read a snippet in vanity Fair,was sad it didn't seem that elio had moved on from Oliver and it was preventing him from finding love.i have read a few spoilers just wonderi..."

Yes, I've read it. I think Elio not moving on emotionally from Oliver is pretty evident already in the last section of Call Me By Your Name, so that's in keeping with what we already knew from the original book.

[Kaydence]

Anna wrote: "I just finished this book and absolutely adored it. One question that I am left with is this: throughout the story there seems to be an implicit understanding between Elio and Oliver that their rel..."

I think definitely a big part of it is societal norms. Oliver, especially, can not bear being "different" from what societies expectations are. Your comment made me think deeper and honestly another huge factor is the spontaneity of the relationship. Maybe Oliver went into it simply wanting a fling, we will never know. What is obvious is that they did fall in love. The thing is, is I feel like their relationship is seen as a summer love; that they are stuck in this sort of bliss of being in Italy and being young, but when they have to return to the real world, they can't see themselves enjoying it. How would their relationship last through the stagnant lives that they actually live apart from one another? They weren't living their true, normal lives while having their relationship, it was something different, and something that they knew would end when Oliver went back to America. Also, not to mention that in this time period it would have been extremely hard to have a long distance relationship so they probably didn't even want to bother with that.

[Kaydence]

Victor wrote: "''You'll kill me if you stop?''(Kill me if I stop while biking???)
What does this mean guys???? Please????"

Victor wrote: "''You'll kill me if you stop?''(Kill me if I stop while biking???)
What does this mean guys???? Please????"
In the novel Elio creates a sort of "rule of thumb" that if Oliver takes a shower when he comes home at night that means that he was sleeping with other girls. In that scene, Oliver goes pee and then closes the door. I took that as he was about to shower, and Elio was insinuating that he just got back from having sex with a girl, in result being a "traitor" towards him.

[Kaydence]

Tu wrote: "Btw, it dawns on me that Oliver is actually bisexual!!! I can't stop thinking whether it is true or not!!!"

I believe that they are both bisexual. In the second novel it is talked about that Elio has gone out with both men and women, though having more of a preference for men.