Perfect for the fans of Call Me By Your Name
What is it about
If you have read Call Me By Your Name (CMBYN), you will recognise a familiar character, Elio’s father. Find Me is not a sequel to CMBYN, but rather, an extension of it. The book is split into four parts, with forwarding timelines. The first part is set ten years after the summer of CMBYN, and we are reintroduced to Elio’s father Sami Perlman, who is now divorced from his wife. While travelling to Rome, he meets a young woman called Miranda and begins a romantic relationship with her.
The second part is set fifteen years after the summer of CMBYN, and we meet a grown up Elio working as a Piano teacher in Paris.
The third part is set twenty years after the summer of CMBYN, and we learn Sami has passed away. We meet Oliver, who is now a college professor in America and married with children. He reunites with Elio in Italy, and they pick up from where they had previously left.
The final part sees Elio and Oliver being together again, raising Little Ollie (Oliver) who is Elio’s half-brother, through Sami and Miranda’s relationship.
What I love about this book
This book received mixed reviews, with some readers saying CMBYN should have been left alone and that Elio and Oliver’s ending in CMBYN was perfect in a bittersweet way. I agree with them, but at the same time I was very curious to learn about their lives in the years that followed the summer romance.
I love how the parts had musically themed titles, depicting a strong connection between music and the Perlmans. So in this way, the book follows the love of classical music, which flowed from one Perlman member to another.
I enjoyed the conversational flow of this book, especially the first part. It reminded me of the movie Before Sunrise, where two people walk around the city, talking to one another. This conversational flow continues in the second part, and the final two parts seem like a hazy memory, with occasional conversation.
I was disappointed by the lack of storyline for Elio’s mum. It would have provided a refreshing POV from another Perlman member, even if she was now divorced from Elio’s father. There was also another missed opportunity to see the relationship between Oliver and his wife, but as she wasn’t a character that was introduced in CMBYN, we didn’t miss her. We got the impression about their marriage from Oliver’s thought process. However, the ending made up for the disappointment and I was somewhat satisfied with the conclusion of Elio and Oliver’s story.
Just like the ending prose from CMBYN, Find Me’s ending prose was truly touching and perfect way to conclude the story.