Emme, o FernandoCertainly Oliver's choice is deliberately left ambiguous, for we fear only Elio's point of view. In my opinion, there are no objective reasons why the two can not be together. I explain below and then I give my interpretation: "Perhaps Oliver is bisexual" > This is a motive? (That would be another reason for them to stay together and not separate). "Perhaps he thinks a more conventional life will be easier or better for his career" > If he were a doctor or a lawyer, surely, but PHILOSOPHER? (Remember Dupond and Dupont, it makes no difference in this environment). "Perhaps he wants children"> adoption!
It is clear that Oliver's father is intolerant, but how many intolerant parents are there in the US? How many people have stopped living their lives as they want because of their parents' point of view?
People have a fallacious way of seeing the "intensity": "it would be impossible to live with such intensity all their lives." What's the problem?
Suppose: I can have fun for a month, but it will not be forever, so I'll just have fun for one day and be sad for the other 29 days ... That does not make any sense !!!
BUT.... That's the OLIVER way of thinking? maybe !!!
"there is plenty of speculation whether the relationship was truly genuine or completely one sided, especially from Oliver's side" - I disagree with that point of view: there is in fact an intense identification between the two that remains in the memory of both even 20 years later (Oliver says: I am just like you and I remember everything). This definitely does not match a relationship one sided.
I agree with "His love for Elio never faded and there are plenty of evidence in the book that says so". It's not just a summer love!
Both Oliver and Elio are very young, none of them can be called mature yet. The book tries to convey the idea that the age difference is a huge hindrance. You do not have to be too smart to realize that small age differences among younger people are significant, but age differences among more mature people are not. There are couples in which even differences of 10 years or more become insignificant. The two become so similar to the passage of time that at the same time it is neither possible to say who is the oldest and who is the youngest. And since when is age difference hindering someone in this world?
Oliver does not have to choose between two things: he could have been married while Elio was forming and the two could get back a few years later (as many gay men do! I think...) ... There are many cases of people who separate, marry other people and then separate and return to their true love (without waiting 20 years for this).
Think about this: COR CORDIUM means that there is an unusual level of identification between two people. It is statistically very difficult to find someone like this and when this is found, there is virtually no alternative. The relationship takes on a tragic dimension: the person feels intellectually, physically and affectively so attached to the other, that any possible parallel life is not worth it.
The text makes this clear, but the author wants to convince us that even so the two do not get together: which is an incoherence.
We must therefore admit two (mutually exclusive) possibilities:
- Or Oliver is the most absurd coward on the face of the earth;
- Or the author has created a purposely incoherent story (sad stories sell more, authors and movie producers have long waited for the new "Brokeback Mountain" .... and so on).
The author justifies his story as an ONLY internal story (which would only involve the consciousness of Elio).
What I want to say is that: perhaps there is no real reason for that story to be so sad.
Unless you'd rather imagine Oliver as the first person on Earth to find your Cor Cordium and yet your heart is cold enough to spend more than 20 years ignoring the existence of that love.
From my point of view, the text makes it clear that even 20 years later, the two still maintain the same level of identification as before.
If it were more consistent, this could be the story of someone named Oliver who found his Cor Cordium and went to live with him in Europe, supported by Elio's loving family (but happy stories do not sell as much as the sad ones).
I would really like to know how someone who remembers details of an experience twenty years ago might not have the courage to live such a resounding love like that. It's almost supernatural !!!
I'd rather believe that they come together after Elio recounts his memories, but I'd probably be fooling myself in doing so.
(Sorry for some error, English is not my native language).
