I loved Call Me By Your Name. It was such a tender and refreshing story. And Find Me continues along the path in a wonderful and not directly sequential way. I appreciate that. It's doesn't just carry on where it left off. There is time between. Things have happened. Life has moved on for everyone. Best of all, we see more of Samuel.
This is what I want from novels when it comes to characters. I want them always to be this alive and self-aware. I want them to be role models. I want people reading these novels to see examples of people who think about their feelings. That's distinctly lacking in the world today; people aware of how their emotions work.
There seems to be this pernicious desire amongst social media types to convince people that emotions are overwhelming and impossible to control. I think that's down to a juvenile understanding of life. At least, from my perspective, I think that we all feel overwhelmed at times but we are meant to explore those feelings and not bury them. Then the next time they rise up, we understand why they're coming out. For example: mindfulness is wonderful but very few people know that it's just the first step and that self-soothing isn't meant to be a cure... It's only meant to calm you until you learn how to deal with things maturely.
But that's what the characters in this novel feel like to me. Refreshingly mature and well balanced. There's nothing childish about them. They sing with an admirable clarity of mind. They can articulate themselves and to the reader. That's very strongly conveyed.
The language is sumptuous and powerful. Yet it maintains this gossamer lightness that makes it such an easy book to devour.
The stories themselves I won't spoil. But I've already said, I love that this isn't a sequel, so much as just a revisiting of old friends. And I expect someone could easily read this book first and find it beautiful as a stand-alone novel. Then read Call Me By Your Name and find read about how all these characters first me. Like a prequel. But not. Hopefully, that makes sense.
Sorry I've been away for a while. I've been a bit busy working after lockdown and especially this last two weeks. But I've read a lot, so the reviews will be quite consistent after this one.
Let me know if you read anything you think I'd enjoy because I have a week off work next week and plan to read a book per day.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Comments