“WHAT ENGLISH COMPOSER Edward Elgar’s orchestral Enigma Variations, composed in the last couple of years of the 19th century, was meant to represent — in each of its 14 variations of a single theme — was a musical picture of a friend or acquaintance of the composer; the addition of the word “enigma,” which Elgar himself added to his original simple “variations,” has never been properly explained, at least not to the complete satisfaction of classical music aficionados who may happen upon André Aciman’s new novel of the same name on a shelf, or table if he’s fortunate, in the few remaining bookstores in the country, and be forgiven for picking it up immediately in belief that it is perhaps the definitive document on the meaning of the musical piece.”
“The five stories that make up Enigma Variations are the first-person memoirs of Paul, a presumably Italian man (I say this because of the Italian words and places in his childhood, not because he identifies himself as such) of indeterminate age today, who is neither gay nor straight — but not bisexual either. He is at once gay, and at once straight, depending on a time of his life, but his sexual proclivities are less about sexual preference at any one time than about deep and passionate love.”