The ways Caveboy's Michelle Bensimon identified with André Aciman's novel Call Me by Your Name
Caveboy is an indie pop music trio from Montreal. With Michelle Bensimon on lead vocals and guitar, Isabelle Banos on bass and synths and Lana Cooney on percussion, the group performs a energetic and infectious style of pop music.
Their debut full-length album, Night in the Park, Kiss in the Dark, was released on 2020. Bensimon loves books and is currently reading Call Me by Your Name by André Acimen.
"I was a little bit late to the to the game, but I just read Call Me by Your Name by André Acimen. I love this book. It hit me in a very real way. At some moments I had to put it down for a little bit and come back to it.
"It's all told from the perspective of a young 17-year-old Jewish boy named Elio and his coming of age and coming into his own identity. Every summer he goes with his family to Italy to their summer home. They always have different people come and stay with them every year. This summer they have a young scholar named Oliver who stays with them.
I remember that feeling at that age, coming into my own identity and queerness with an older person — how that sort of feels like your life is about to start and simultaneously about to end.
"The book just travels through their experiences together and the mind of this young boy Elio — and that intensity that you feel when you're a teenager falling in love, falling in confusion — and coming into his own queer identity and how that feels when you're so young and with someone who is so much older.
"I remember that feeling at that age, coming into my own identity and queerness with an older person — how that sort of feels like your life is about to start and simultaneously about to end. It is so intense.
"I find that the way this book was written depicts that in a very real authentic way."
Michelle Bensimon's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
Watch Caveboy perform the song I Wonder on CBC Music
