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| André Aciman |
AVietnamese poet once wrote that "Life is beautiful only when love is unfinished." The love story in this book was beautifully unfinished in the sense that it never ended. Although Anciman unfolded Elio's coming of age with lavishing intensity, Elio was more than just a virile 17-year-old and Oliver was more than just a teenaged wet dream. The few weeks they spent together decorated their lives with colorful passion and enriched their souls even if they were never meant to be together.
One could quickly dismiss the affair as a summer fling fueled with the sultry sun and scenic landscapes of coastal Italy. Certainly, any perceivable barrier could dampen the most fiery of passion, blur the most vivid of memories, and condemn all romantic sentiments to melancholic razbliuto. The lasting spell of love cast on the two men in this book bridged the chasm of time and distance with its transformative power of becoming erotic, empathetic, platonic, or unconditional.
To escape the lonely darkness, how would you choose to live? A fleeting minute of radiance or a lifetime of dimness? Elio was suggestively blinded by the past and wandering on in a twilight. However, as punishing as time and distance could be, they allowed the luminosity of his past to guide him onward with peace and a touch of healthy longing. Oliver was his first true love after all
