Your email has been sent.
Beyond Longing
Andre Aciman takes up the motifs explored in his memoir—desire, home, and memory—in a steamy debut novel, Call Me by Your Name.
André Aciman (Photo: Sigrid Estrada © 1999)
With Out of Egypt, André Aciman established himself as a sharp, humorous, and often heartbreaking chronicler of bygone eras. Crowded with charismatic and eccentric relatives, the 1994 memoir portrays life in Alexandria through the year 1965, when the last members of Aciman’s family fled the country. It puts forth motifs—memory, loss, and longing—to which Aciman returns over and again in subsequent work.
Now Aciman has ventured into fiction. His first novel, Call Me by Your Name, follows Elio, a 17-year-old Italian Jew, as he falls hard for a visiting American graduate student named Oliver, over the course of one passionate summer. Though the novel might seem like a departure from Aciman’s earlier work, it is in fact a variation on his favorite theme: longing.
Aciman talks with us about the origins of the story and about what it’s like to write a gay erotic romance with your wife and sons down the hall.
Five Years Later, Madoff Scandal Echoes Through the Jewish Community, and Beyond
The lingering effects of his massive Ponzi scheme on a century-old youth group, a Boston philanthropist, and small investors
Four-Letter Words: Why Jews Have Led the Making and Defense of Obscenity in America
Does sexually graphic material help Jewish continuity? ‘Unclean Lips’ argues for the unseemliness of Bruce, Roth, and their ilk.
Sephardic Singer Flory Jagoda Keeps the Music of Her Prewar Bosnian Childhood Alive
The composer of the beloved Hanukkah song ‘Ocho Kandelikas’ shares stories and melodies from her past
- Neo-Nazis Confused by Tila Tequila
- Spotlight On: Jerry Stahl, Author of ‘Happy Mutant Baby Pills’
- Bette Midler to Play Mae West in Upcoming Film
- Adam Pally Fixes the Jewish/Hip-Hop Dilemma
