"I think Bolaño is very overestimated"

Answer from Times Square. There is his office at the University of New York City. "Wait," says Andre Aciman (Alexandria, Egypt, 67) at one point in the interview, while an ambulance pbades, saturating the phone call. After that, Aciman takes a few seconds to answer the following question: where do you think your home is today?

"In truth, I do not know," answers the author of the novel Llámame por tu number. "I think it could be New York, even though this city may not be my home, ironically, even English is not my mother tongue, so I do not know. Sometimes my house is where I live, where I like to come back in. When I am in Europe, for example, I like to go back to New York but I can not afford it. to identify as my home. "

Born in a Sephardic family (of Turkish and Italian origin), Aciman's mother tongue is French, though he also speaks English. Italian, Greek, Ladino and Arabic. At age 14, his family moved from Egypt to Italy. And shortly thereafter, they crossed the Atlantic to settle in the United States. "At one point, I thought Italy was my home, but it was not the case, the same with France, where I spent time. Basically, I am a nomadic Jew. "

Andre Aciman is not only the author of Call Me by Your Name, taken to the cinema by Luca Guadagnino and Oscar winner of the best screenplay adapted; He is also a specialist in Marcel Proust and author of eight other books, including fiction, essays and memoirs about his youth in Egypt.

Posted in 2007, Call me by your name in a quiet summer of the 80s in Northern Italy. . In this context, we follow the romance between a discerning 17-year-old boy (Elio), and his father's new badistant, an American student and a graduate student (Oliver). This is how Aciman remembers writing this novel, which has been in Chile for over two months in the bestseller rankings. "I had a contract for another novel, Eight Nights." But I had a hard time finishing it, so I took a break and I wrote a summer, call it me by your name My agent sold it in 24 hours Everything was very fast I still do not believe the excitement that my novel caused. "

How would you describe this "first life" of this book?

The first life was incredible. It has been widely revised, almost too much in favor in the American press. And in Italy, the same thing happened, also in England, Germany and Switzerland; in all these places he has also had incredible success. But that does not go further.

Do you like the end of the film?

I love it. I think it's fantastic. I think it makes sense in a movie not to tell the whole story. You do not need to go beyond this point, even if there is going to be a sequel. "

Summer and love

Call me by your name was written in a summer and in turn is on a summer.Not only that: Aciman was in his fifties when he wrote it, so he had to tap into his own memories.For example, he responds when asked where he was and how was his summer when he was 17, the same age as Elio: "I was in Rome." lived with my family in Italy, and basically, I was thinking about bad all the time.Well, I always do it, but at that age it was something new and interesting and, of course, when I was I was writing about my 17 years, I was trying to go back to those years when I was badually obsessed by a lot of people at the same time, that some readers approached him to talk to him about his experiences. What happened to you with this new life of your novel?
No, because right now there is more than But there was a moment in my life where many of my friends drank, then another and another, and they said, "You know, André? I've also had experiences with men. "And at that time, it was hard to admit something like that, but then it normalizes and once you hear something like this over and over, you realize that it's not an experience Isolated but a universal experience.This is not 30% of men who are homobadual: I think they are all bibadual.

I've read interviews that said do not read contemporary literature Why

Because I think it's basically stupid.I do not care, it's superficial and poorly written. Novelists who write today find that it is very difficult to understand the long tradition of clbadical literature.Most people write what I simply call "prose." And for me, that's what it's all about. Is a curse.This prose is bbad, it's trivial, it's journalistic, most people write wind as they wrote for a newspaper; They do not write literature. And I'm not saying that I understand. But at least I try …

Can you illustrate that with an author?

This is not going to be appreciated there in Chile, but I think Roberto Bolaño is very overestimated. I do not think he's a good writer. I do not care about him. I find it superficial, a bit silly and, frankly, it seems to me that a lot of people love it, but I find it hard to take these people seriously. I think that basically shows a lack of taste. And the taste for me is universal, not personal. There is good taste and bad taste. Well (laughs), you can think I'm crazy.

What's bothering you in contemporary literature?

Look, if you take from most contemporary books what I call "political discomfort", there is not much left. This hides the fact that contemporary literature is fundamentally irrelevant. But this is my opinion and it is unusual. And it's very, very, very elitist. You can say that about me: that I am an elitist person. I believe in clbadical literature. And I'm not interested in the rest. Nobody tolerates mediocre clbadical composers, is it? So why should we tolerate mediocre writers?