I went into reading this book with the thoughts– Will I enjoy it? Will I love it as much as I loved Call Me By Your Name? Or will I simply not enjoy it at all? Will I even make it through the entire 260 pages?
The answer–My God, where do I begin?
It is important to note that this book is, in fact, a sequel! If you have not read Call Me By Your Name, I highly suggest you read it before this review.
Upon hearing that there was a sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, a masterpiece that turned into the only movie to this day that I have purchased to rewatch over and over, I was skeptical. Call Me By Your Name took me on an unexpected, yet deeply romantic journey, and will forever be one of my favorite love stories of all time–if not, my absolute favorite–for it’s realness and trueness.
Yes. Realness and trueness.
Based on the ending of CMBYN, I was sure that I would not enjoy Find Me nearly as much as its predecessor, as I didn’t much care for the final stretch of CMBYN, which gave readers a look into Elio and Oliver’s separate futures away from one another.
However, I was incredibly wrong to assume that would be the case.
Find Me absolutely blew my brains out and changed my life. Even more than Call Me By Your Name did, which says a lot.
The story is so different from the first book, yet the writing style is the same, and I applaud Aciman for writing as he does. He’s brilliant. He inspires me. His writing is so raw and real that I feel as if I’m having a conversation with him–through the lives of his written characters, of course. His writing is not overly colloquial but is rather elegant in the way he forms sentences together. It's beautiful, really. If you don't like the style of writing where run-on sentences are applauded, then perhaps this is not the read for you.
The nature of Aciman's use of run-on sentences is, in such a weird way, dazzling. It captures the emotions of the characters so perfectly and so vividly.
The story is seemingly split into 4 parts, each part following a different character that we know from the first book. The first part starting off with Elio’s father, where he meets a woman unexpectedly on a train and embarks on a rather spontaneous romantic journey. The second part where Elio meets his own romantic interest–a man named Michel who is forever changed by Elio's love. The third part is seen through Oliver, who has a romantic lust for both a man and a woman at the same time, but fails to give into his lust despite his not-so-satisfying relationship with his wife, with whom he has a family. The 4th part then brings us back to Elio's point of view, where, after having an eye-opening experience with Michel, realizes where his heart is really at– and that is with Oliver.
In each separate story, nearly the same sort of revelations are brought about. Through each of these character’s romantic experiences and unexpected journeys, the characters lives are changed significantly because of the encounters. Elio's father discovers his truest love. Elio and Olive find out that, despite having separate lives and not speaking for years, true love does not just slip away.
That one person that you think about nonstop, that you wish to see again, to speak to one more time, never just gets erased from your memory.
Aciman is one of the most brilliant writers when it comes to describing emotions, feelings, and concepts that everyone can relate to. I found myself countless times reading over his writing, realizing that he was describing something I’d felt, something I’d been through, something I didn’t quite know how to explain– and Aciman explains each and every emotion perfectly. I don't think I've ever flagged so many pages of a book before.
Find Me may not be for everyone. But I will give you this– if you are anything like me, you read CMBYN and fell in love with Elio and Oliver’s love story. When they went their separate ways, you were crushed. You wanted a happy ending. Maybe, you too, upon hearing there was a sequel to the great contemporary love story, were unsure of whether you would enjoy it or not. Maybe you thought, “If this entire book does not have tons of Elio and Oliver together, I will hate it,'' because that’s exactly what I thought.
So, if you thought any of those things, if your thoughts lined up similarly with my own– I urge you to give this book a shot no matter what you think.
I thought that this book would be a 3-star for me when I first picked it up. “There’s no way it can compare to the original!” I thought. How wrong of me to assume.
If I could give more than a 5-star rating, I would. Because CMBYN was a 5-star for me. But Find Me? My God, I could rate it 10 times higher if that were possible.
Call Me By Your Name showed me an unexpected journey of love that cannot, perhaps should not, be. Find Me showed me that true love never fades away and it was an absolutely breathtaking experience following not only Elio's story, but also his father's, as well as Oliver's.
FINAL RATING
I think it goes without saying that, obviously, Find Me earns a 5-star rating for me. It completely surpassed my expectations, which to be honest, were rather low. Now I know better than to have such low expectations for André Aciman. I'm sure he could write the most mundane-sounding book and he would make it absolutely remarkable.
Aciman has outstanding story-telling skills and an incredibly brilliant way of describing passion and love and practically every emotion in the book. If you have a taste for books that will make you feel something so powerful, then you definitely have to read Find Me. It is one of those books that I know will stick with me for the rest of my life in the best possible way.
“...it occurred to me that there was only one person on this planet that I’d like to have my eyes shut by. And he, I hoped, without saying a word to me for years, would cross the globe to place his palm upon my eyes, as I would place mine on his.”
