ENIGMA VARIATIONS

This novel of desire and obsession is written elegantly with an eye for sensuous detail.

Fans of Aciman’s novel Call Me By Your Name are in for a double treat in 2017. Firstly, this beloved coming-of-age novel has been adapted into a film by director Luca Guadagnino ( I Am

Love, A Bigger Splash) and co-writer James Ivory ( Maurice and A Room With A View). Starring Armie Hammer and premiering at Sundance in late January, the film has enjoyed rapturous reviews. The second treat for Aciman’s fans is a new novel that is somewhat reminiscent of Call Me By Your Name.

The opening section has a similar storyline, set in Italy, and with a young boy smitten by an older man. The ages are different – Paul is only 12 and Giovanni, his parents’ craftsman, is in his twenties. The story is narrated years later, when Paul has become a man himself and returns to the scene of his first love on a family errand. He remembers and reflects on that time, and then comes to the realisation of what was actually going on that summer, a revelation that will surprise the reader.

This opening section sets the theme for what follows – a number of infatuations that Paul falls into. Surprisingly, he falls for both women and men and has long relationships with both. Yet his infatuations have a pattern and there are always obstacles and difficulties. He always falls for someone unavailable, usually he and the other person are both already in relationships or Paul makes the situation difficult and protracted by failing to speak out or act.

For two years he is obsessed with a young German man from the tennis courts where he plays. He sees him naked in the changing rooms, stalks him on the internet and in person, yet doesn’t dare to speak to him. Aciman’s gay readers will be thrilled that after ten years he has finally returned to gay themes and this novel of desire and obsession is written as elegantly as ever and with an eye for sensuous detail.