Call Me By Your Name discussion

The sequel will be called Find Me, and will be published October 29th, this year.

“In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio’s father Samuel, now divorced, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train leads to a relationship that changes Sami’s life definitively. Elio soon moves to Paris where he too has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a professor in northern New England with sons who are nearly grown, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return visit to Europe.”

I would love to hear thoughts on this. What do you think? Are you excited for it? Do you think it will live up to Call Me By Your Name?

Here are some articles in case anyone wants to read more about it:

https://www.vulture.com/2019/03/call-...

https://ew.com/books/2019/03/20/call-...

Call Me By Your Name is easily one of my absolute favorite books of all time, which is exactly why I do not look forward to its sequel.
The plots and characters left off in Call Me By Your Name are, in my opinion at least, much better left unbuilt upon. What I think is so beautiful about the story is how it ends on heartbreak and does not spell out what will become of Elio, Oliver, of their families. The open-ended nature leaves so much for the reader to fill in, which I think is wonderful.
I know Aciman is a wonderful and moral author and is no way releasing a sequel just because the hype for the original story is still high, however, I feel as though this new book is in no way needed.

how horrible!
I liked the story where the film ended and did not appreciate the rest of the book, I found it totally unnecessary (this is of course only my personal opinion).
For this reason I find a sequel redundant, I will definitely not read it.

Hmm I'm a sceptic regarding this sequel. Call Me By Your Name is one of my favourite books of all time but I thought it should have been left at that. I can't find the need for a sequel. Do I need to know more about Elio's father? Absolutely. But some things don't need to be spelt out and I love drawing my own conclusions and making my own stories up in my head that would fit my own interpretation of the novel. Somehow, reading this synopsis sort of ruin how I see and appreciate his father. Not to mention I also really appreciate Elio's good-natured and wise mother (although she was often a hovering figure in the novel). I guess we'll have to see...but I don't feel at all hyped as they say.

In Call Me By Your Name, Samuel (the father) had died by the end of the book. Aciman talks of his "ghost spot" where Elio buried some of his father's ashes...
Now we are to learn that his parents had gotten a divorce in the interim? And Samuel had an affair with some woman on a train? It's absurd.
If this new book, 'Find Me' is to take place somewhere in the center of Call Me By Your Name there will undoubtedly be obvious continuity flaws. To me this looks like a grab to cash in on the popularity of the film and renewed popularity of the novel.

I'll read the new book...but I'll be holding my nose.

Like other commenters, I can't shake the feeling that a sequel to Call Me By Your Name is unnecessary. Yes, a part of us may yearn to know what happened during the 'blank years', or what happened after the last page of the book - but we don't actually NEED to be told. It was a storytelling choice, not negligence on Andre Aciman's part, that left that information out. And he has given us room to imagine any number of scenarios on our own, to interpret many things as we will. I first read the book several years ago, and that aspect is one of the things I've cherished most about the story. Part of the book's appeal stems from its sense of mystery, its ambiguities...now things that we were once free to imagine for ourselves are going to be laid out for us by Aciman, some of it out of sheer necessity (such as giving Elio's father a name, nailing down Elio's profession, etc). There are doubtless going to be things that don't seem to fit with the original book as well (such as the divorce of Elio's parents). We're getting another novel about these characters, and it may give us some things that we've longed for. But we're losing some things, too.

I have great respect for Aciman, but it's hard to imagine that this book would have happened if the film adaptation of the original novel hadn't been successful (while ironically leaving out Aciman's own coda to Elio and Oliver's summer). Aciman himself has discussed the pressure he's been under to write this second book that he always said he wouldn't write, and his commitment to collaborate with Luca Guadagnino on a screenplay for a movie sequel is also known. So I have really mixed feelings that my experience of Call Me By Your Name is going to be altered for that reason. Will I read the sequel? Of course. But the likelihood of it reaching the heights of the original is slim. In many ways, Call Me By Your Name was lightning in a bottle. It can't be repeated.

Marko wrote: "And Samuel had an affair with another man?"

Samuel's affair is confirmed to be with a younger woman, not a man, in the summary for the book on Amazon, which has slightly different wording than the one first posted on Vulture.

Artgroupie wrote: "Marko wrote: "And Samuel had an affair with another man?"

Samuel's affair is confirmed to be with a younger woman, not a man, in the summary for the book on Amazon, which has slightly different wo..."

Yes, the mysterious woman on a train. Even more absurd...at least a man would have been something Annella couldn't bring.

Artgroupie wrote: "Like other commenters, I can't shake the feeling that a sequel to Call Me By Your Name is unnecessary. Yes, a part of us may yearn to know what happened during the 'blank years', or what happened a..."

I completely agree...Aciman is bending to the pressure and selling out.

I'm not very excited about it to be honest... It kinda breaks the magic of the first book. It's like Aciman is trying to make more money of it.

If im not wrong I've read somewhere that Elio and Oliver have their happy ending, tho.

It may or may not work. Whatever the case may be, as readers (and some of us as writers) we need to remember that this is a world Aciman created. Nobody knows it better than he does. And at the end of the day, it is just a further expression of himself and his art. Forget criticizing him for this---if anything, he deserves credit and support for trying something that clearly no one thinks he can do.

Why be skeptical rather than open-minded?

Selma wrote: "I'm sceptical, I want more but at the same time, don't want to get disappointed! That's the tricky thing about sequels, I have faith in Aciman but still!"
That's exactly what I think.

Ok I'm new to this discussion thingie so bear with me.

First things first, I adored Call Me By Your Name and the first time I read it, I kinda shared a hate-to-love relationship with it. But the more I let the book settle the more I realized how much I loved the book. The heartache was so genuine and even thinking about it now makes me wanna tear up.

Recently there was a buzz about the movie receiving a sequel and I dunno if I'm actually for it since the movie changed the ending and made it different from the book and now they want to follow it up with a sequel depicting the very things they skipped in the first movie?

And now the novel itself is receiving a sequel and personally, I agree with most of the people here that the first book should be left alone. No matter how much faith I have in Aciman or how much I would love to see Elio and Oliver reconcile, the beauty was in their tragedy itself. It feels like someone will wipe the board where a poet has written their best poetry and will ask them to write the entire thing without repeating the same old one. It also feels that Aciman who didn't plan a sequel initially might not really be into the entire thing either. I mean, if the writer themselves have no interest in kickstarting the story again then why would the readers feel the same way?

I really don't want the trance of the first book to end but the sequel is not one I plan on skipping. I'm not excited about it but I'm not against reading it either.

Sean wrote: "Call Me By Your Name is easily one of my absolute favorite books of all time, which is exactly why I do not look forward to its sequel.
The plots and characters left off in Call Me By Your Name ar..."

I thought so too but I still read the book. I feel like Aciman could have left it where Call Me By Your Name ends but you know how it works. If you make money from the first novel, I guarantee you you're gonna get a second novel. I still thought the second book was beautiful but I definitely understand where you are coming from!