#LGBTVoices Celebrates Pride LGBT+ REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA

Andre Aciman: Call Me by Your Name

A novel by @aaciman centers on a relationship bt 17-year-old Italian Elio & a visiting American, Oliver & openly tackles the modern, yet timeless struggles of being queer.

#Pride

I first picked up Call Me by Your Name because I knew the movie was coming out and I wanted to ready the book first. I’m glad I did, bc this book captured by heart and ensnared me in the world of Elio and Oliver.

Set in 1980s Italy. Elio is 17. Each summer, his parents take a visiting doctoral student in their home for 6 weeks who revises their work & helps Elio’s father w/ academic paperwork. Usually, Elio resents this arrangement bc he has to give up his room. But not in Summer of ’83.

In '83 Oliver is the guest. He's 24, carefree, & detached The opposite of introvert Elio. When they first meet, Elio tries his best to impress Oliver, but these attempts are met with disinterest. Elio, bisexual, knows he's attracted to Oliver & eventually confesses his feelings.

At first, Oliver pushes Elio away and becomes distant. Elio explores his relationship with Marzia, a local girl around his age. But that changes. Elio & Oliver have a midnight rendezvous where they become intimate. Elio, in his first experience with a man, reacts by pushing away.

That doesn’t last. The two grow closer. Before returning to the US after the 6 weeks, Oliver goes to Rome for three days and is accompanied by Elio, but, alas, Oliver is gone. In fact, Oliver gets married to a woman a year later.

The novel concludes w/ them meeting on two separate occasions, 15 & 20 yrs later. Both are retrospective, aware that they have lived two separate lives, one in reality & one in fantasy that was denied them by external forces. A feeling that #LGBTQ people understand all too well.

Call Me by Your Name won the award for best Gay Fiction novel a the 20th @Lambda Literary Awards.

It was turned into a movie in 2017 starring the incomparable @RealChalamet and @ArmieHammer. Both translated the novel to the big screen so very well.

Perhaps the most moving part of @aaciman’s book was Elio’s father’s monologue. He said, knowing that Elio was heartbroken, “When you least expect it, nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot. Just remember: I am here.” He continued...

“Right now, you may not want to feel anything – maybe you never wished to feel anything and maybe it’s not to me that you’ll want to speak about these things. But feel something, you obviously did…You had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship, and I envy you...

My God, as a gay man myself, what I would have given to hear those words growing up in the US South. Thank you, Andre Aciman, for writing those words, this book, into existence.

@aaciman

"The book's title, Call Me by Your Name, is something Oliver implores Elio to do after the two have had sex, & comes from a desire to blur boundaries bt the self & other...his desire is rooted both in the fact that he wants to be him as much as he wants to be w/ him." @e_alexjung

. @andreaciman is an Egyptian-American writer. He is currently distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of City University of New York, where he teaches the history of literary theory.

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