December 2008: Call Me By Your Name (Aciman)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 10:43:40 PM

Kate welcomed a dozen of us to her charming apartment with a lovely assortment of treats plus delicious hot chocolate on the chilly evening of Tuesday, December 16. Reactions to André Aciman's Call Me By Your Name were more or less evenly divided among the group. Some felt that Aciman had effectively captured the all consuming obsession of the 17-year-old narrator, while others disliked the writing and book structure, or simply weren't that interested by the story. Jane appreciated the way the book celebrated the sense of touch, not just in the sex scenes (which were generally agreed to be hot) but also in Elio's physical experience of his surroundings. Some enjoyed the unresolved details that were interwoven into the story, while others found them frustrating, or felt they undermined the believability of the story. Most were unsatisfied with the latter part of the book, feeling that the book would have been better as a short story or novella. My own experiences spending time at the Italian beach in summer, and going to a book signing during my most recent visit, made those aspects of the book resonate for me.

As we moved on towards picking a book for our next meeting, Nancy instigated a more general discussion of how our books are chosen, noting that while our relatively free-form method has usually worked well, some have expressed frustration with our recent choices, and would like to consider other methods. Various ideas were brought up, and after some discussion, we came to a few conclusions: We want to continue to read both fiction and non-fiction. We do not want to lose the possibility of following paths of interest as they come up, so don't want to choose books too far in advance. The idea of reading several books in series in a given general area was seen as a good way to help focus the selection process, as it would allow members to research books they'd like to read in that area. All agreed that books should be read before being suggested, to reduce the chances of real duds. Also, sharing suggestions early would be useful so people could think about them beforehand.

In conclusion, members are encouraged to send me (Sherrill) suggestions for future areas of interest, and also, any specific book suggestions for each upcoming meeting. I will try to organize these and include information in my reminder email (sent approximately one week before each book club meeting). This will give people a chance to learn something about the proposed books beforehand, helping us reach a more informed choice. We’ll see how this goes, and decide on further refinements as needed.

All this notwithstanding, because of the club's planned visit to the Afghanistan Art exhibit, for January we decided to read Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (review below).

Starting in February, we plan to focus on economics for a few months, starting with Janet's recent suggestion, The Two-Income Trap, by Elizabeth Warren and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi. A professor at Harvard Law School, Warren has been in the news lately, as she chairs the oversight panel appointed by Congress to monitor the spending of the $700 billion bailout money.

Our January meeting will be held on inauguration day, but since it will all be over except for the dancing and drinking by that time, we figured it would not be critical conflict.

~ Sherrill