Alberto Venturini reviewed Find Me by André Aciman
Review of 'Find Me' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
"Find me" is a novel about love: but it's a form of love that is purely and utterly romantic. To me, it just doesn't feel real. The characters (and the way they love) are pure idealisation of romantic love. Not one fight is included, not even one single little creak in the perfect edifice of their love. That's not how real life goes. Conveniently, at the end of each "episode", the narration ends at the peak of the "honeymoon phase", when the two lovers have fallen madly and desperately in love and everything is just perfect. Life after that is only briefly touched upon, but clearly Aciman is not interested in that. That's what I take issue with.
Oliver is the only character that, I felt, has some inner conflict: indeed, he was the only one who felt a bit more real. Too bad he only shows up in the …
"Find me" is a novel about love: but it's a form of love that is purely and utterly romantic. To me, it just doesn't feel real. The characters (and the way they love) are pure idealisation of romantic love. Not one fight is included, not even one single little creak in the perfect edifice of their love. That's not how real life goes. Conveniently, at the end of each "episode", the narration ends at the peak of the "honeymoon phase", when the two lovers have fallen madly and desperately in love and everything is just perfect. Life after that is only briefly touched upon, but clearly Aciman is not interested in that. That's what I take issue with.
Oliver is the only character that, I felt, has some inner conflict: indeed, he was the only one who felt a bit more real. Too bad he only shows up in the last 30 pages or so of the book - I would have liked to read more of him.
Maybe it's also Aciman's style that didn't sit well with me; his prose is beautiful, but I find that he spends too much time on irrelevant details, at the expense of the development of his characters.
I haven't read "Call me by your name" (I only watched the film), but might try to get a copy of it and hope that it reads better than this book.