(no subject)
Instead of going to the spinning class tonight, my sister and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and went on a 2½ hours long bike-ride. We cycled out into the countryside, headed towards the coast, but not quite making it. 19 kilometres according to googlemap. My legs are very tired, but I really want to go out there again, maybe with a little more planning ahead next time. We were really just supposed to go for an ice cream, so a couple of hours on a bike, without any water and no clear direction or map of the small roads where a bit unexpected. Though great fun.
Then I finished reading Call Me by Your Name, and oh what a glorious novel it was. It's bittersweet and very much an end of the summer read. One of my favourite bits was the conversation between Elio and his father after Elio came back from Rome. Oh Elio's father, you say such wise things. Also, I've very happy Oliver and Elio are both alive in the end. It's a bittersweet ending, very Ivanhoe/Rebecka in some ways, but still, they had their meeting, their time in Rome. They called each other by their names. The novel is romantic, but it isn't a romance. It is so cerebral, so full of longing and lingering want. It captures summer, and visits to the countryside, long days where anything can happen. There are shades of Katherine Mansfield's German pension and E.M Forster's Italy, and that film Stolen Beauty with Liv Taylor and something else I can't quite capture. It's not a typical gay novel, whatever that is, even if the Elio/Oliver relationship of course is gay. But there's so much more to it than that. It's just beautiful, thoughtful and lyrical and I have a feeling it will stay with me for quite a while.
Also, this passage just captured my current mood perfectly:
Very autumnal, very beginning of school year, very Indian summer, and as always at Indian summer twilight, that lingering mix of unfinished summer business and unfinished homework and always the illusion of summer months ahead, which wears itself out no sooner than the sun has set.
Then I finished reading Call Me by Your Name, and oh what a glorious novel it was. It's bittersweet and very much an end of the summer read. One of my favourite bits was the conversation between Elio and his father after Elio came back from Rome. Oh Elio's father, you say such wise things. Also, I've very happy Oliver and Elio are both alive in the end. It's a bittersweet ending, very Ivanhoe/Rebecka in some ways, but still, they had their meeting, their time in Rome. They called each other by their names. The novel is romantic, but it isn't a romance. It is so cerebral, so full of longing and lingering want. It captures summer, and visits to the countryside, long days where anything can happen. There are shades of Katherine Mansfield's German pension and E.M Forster's Italy, and that film Stolen Beauty with Liv Taylor and something else I can't quite capture. It's not a typical gay novel, whatever that is, even if the Elio/Oliver relationship of course is gay. But there's so much more to it than that. It's just beautiful, thoughtful and lyrical and I have a feeling it will stay with me for quite a while.
Also, this passage just captured my current mood perfectly:
Very autumnal, very beginning of school year, very Indian summer, and as always at Indian summer twilight, that lingering mix of unfinished summer business and unfinished homework and always the illusion of summer months ahead, which wears itself out no sooner than the sun has set.