119
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #233,050 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
A Poor Follow Up to a Classic
This was disappointing. Because the novel is told through three points of view with connected yet separate narratives, each part of the story feels rushed and underdeveloped. Aciman attempts to weave together themes of melancholy and stagnation and predetermined, eternal love, but the attempts at meaning fall flat due to a lack of nuance. That Elio and Oliver 20 years later have not changed substantially from when they fell in love as young men feels hopelessly maudlin rather than melancholic. And I don't know that the decision to insert Elio's father into the first section of the story was particularly well-conceived... the idea of characters replicating parent-child relationships through erotic and romantic love feels icky, rather than profound. Who dates a woman half his age because she reminds him of his son? The characters here feel shallow and too pleased with themselves, a hollow story that simply fails to continue or build on CMBYN.
