Well I had no idea what this book was about going into it aside from it was an lgbt book. I was at Barnes and Noble one night looking for an lgbt book so I decided to pull out my trusty iphone and search for lists. I found a list of 100 modern lgbt books...and this was the ONLY one that Barnes and Noble had. Truly sad. But I bought it. And I came home and started reading it right away and got totally sucked into it!
The book is about a family in Italy in the 1980's that takes in someone as a boarder every summer. This year, they've taken in Oliver, a 24 year old writer from the states that has come to finish his book. 17 Year old Elio, the son of the family boarding Oliver, quickly gets attached to Oliver and fantasizes about him and spends as much time around him as he can. As the two spend more and more time together, it is only a matter of time before they are honest about their feelings. This book was SO beautifully written. It's a coming of age tale, a sexual awakening tale, a tale of friendship. There are some very graphic scenes in the book, but it is ALWAYS done tastefully. Graphic sex is portrayed as art here and I think Aciman does an amazing job of capturing young lust mistaken for young love. Though who am I to say whether or not these characters love each other...their relationship certainly holds throughout the book. I was worried at first that it would be creepy having a 17 year old and 24 year old sleeping together, but honestly, it wasn't at all. It worked for them. Obviously there was a reason the author made Elio 17 rather than an adult at 18, but I think it added to the whole wonder and riskiness of the book. Though I have to say that if this were real life I may feel a little differently :p Bottom line, great first read of 2012 and I only hope they get better from here! Highly recommended. ___________________________________________________________ I also wanted to mention that over the next several days I'll be listing numerous books on ebay. These will mostly be first editions, signed copies, limited editions. As part of getting my debt down, I'm getting rid of some true treasures that I hold on to just to hold on to. So I figured I'd sell them to other good homes that would appreciate them. I am NOT asking you all to bid on my items...just making you aware that they're out there in case there's anything that really catches your eye and you might want to scoop up for a decent price. Here's my ebay page and like I said, more books will be added every day. There will be about 50 books going up in total.
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