David Leavitt's extraordinary first novel, now reissued in paperback, is a seminal work about family, sexual identity, home, and loss.
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Jan 08, 2008
James
rated it: 
What I admire about this novel is that Leavitt explores the significance in mundane details of the characters' lives. Grabbing a stranger's cock or fighting with a loved one is easy, but talking to those people takes immense courage. The characters find that opportunities come and go, and many aren't worth pursuing, and others can be created. I find their internal lives believable, and this book hooked me and kept me reading far too late for a few nights. But I wouldn't want to be any of the cha
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May 22, 2010
Surreysmum
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As far as I'm aware, this is Leavitt's first published novel, and it's an impressive effort. Leavitt's theme is that of many of his stories in Family Dancing - that is, family relationships from a specifically gay standpoint. In a way, you could analyze this novel down into a rather pedantic series of illustrative dissertations on possible varieties of family response: there's Jerene, the black lesbian whose parents have entirely disowned her; there's Eliot, brought up as the adopted son of a
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Nov 02, 2009
Alarra
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I didn't like The Page Turner, so I was wary of this, one of his better known works. Philip Benjamin, young and in his first major relationship, is steeling himself up to come out to his middle-aged parents, Owen and Ruth. They themselves are being rocked by some destablising news - they will have to leave their New York home of over twenty years, and Ruth realises she doesn't know a think about her husband. Owen, meanwhile, is struggling with his secret even as he inches closer to admitting he
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Sep 30, 2009
Davis
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I have read five of the author's books. While they are all excellent, this is the best one in my opinion. This is a story about getting honest. While it is never easy to come out, the main character has an easier job than that of his father. Years of self-deception can create a delusional reality. When the father is finally forced to be honest, the house of illusions built up over a lifetime between him and his wife come crashing down.
Mr. Leavitt is a brilliant writer. His book has a More...
Mr. Leavitt is a brilliant writer. His book has a More...
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Dec 01, 2010
El
rated it:
Today is World AIDS Day. Since AIDS was first really recognized in the early 80s I think the numbers have reached over 25 million deaths. Pretty staggering when you think about it, and when you think about all the lives that have been touched in some way by this pandemic. It's not just about the big names you see on the news. It's about their families too, the ones you don't see on TV. It's about people in your neighborhood who could also be sick. It could be about just anyone. More...
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Apr 27, 2011
Julia
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I've kept this on my shelves for a long time, never really feeling in the right mood to read it as I somehow expected the book to be too keen on political correctness, to centred on the homosexual theme everyone knows about when purchasing this book, and I also kind of thought it'd be too eighties. I don't know where these ideas came from, and I'm so glad that I was completely wrong.
The Lost Language of Cranes is one of the most engaging books I've read in a while with characters tha More...
The Lost Language of Cranes is one of the most engaging books I've read in a while with characters tha More...
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Jan 02, 2012
Ilya
rated it: 
This book is part of the gay fiction canon but it feels more like an artifact than a story that will be lovingly read and re-read for years.
Public opinion on homosexuality has shifted dramatically since the late 1980s, so that's part of it. Without the whiff of judgment and scandal that must have made this book interesting to people back then, it's a pretty pedestrian read. The characters are thinly sketched, and some scenes feel as predictable as an after-school special. Too much e More...
Public opinion on homosexuality has shifted dramatically since the late 1980s, so that's part of it. Without the whiff of judgment and scandal that must have made this book interesting to people back then, it's a pretty pedestrian read. The characters are thinly sketched, and some scenes feel as predictable as an after-school special. Too much e More...
Nov 19, 2010
Julie at All Ears
rated it:
This book is set in NYC in the 1980's. Philip, a young gay man in his 20's is tired of casual 1 night stands and longs for a long term relationship. He falls in love with Eliot and decides that he needs to finally let his parents know that he is gay. Philip's parents, Rose and Owen, are quiet literary intellectuals and have drifted apart over the years. Without the common task of raising their son, they find they have little in common. But more than just boredom in his marriage, Owen finall
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Dec 01, 2010
Christina Stind
rated it:
"It was true that it had not been a great marriage. It had not even been a particularly good marriage. But it had been her life."
Sometimes, a lousy marriage is to be preferred rather than abandoning it and living on your own. And if your marriage isn't lousy but just sad and lonely, then the decision is even harder to make.
Owen and Rose are a middle-aged couple living in an appartment in New York, an appartment they are about to loose. They have a son, Philip. Philip is gay More...
Sometimes, a lousy marriage is to be preferred rather than abandoning it and living on your own. And if your marriage isn't lousy but just sad and lonely, then the decision is even harder to make.
Owen and Rose are a middle-aged couple living in an appartment in New York, an appartment they are about to loose. They have a son, Philip. Philip is gay More...
Dec 27, 2011
Rob
rated it:
I always find it hard to review a two-star book, because the inevitable question is 'well why did you read it?' I read this because it was sort of hinted to me that Leavitt is a kind of American Alan Hollinghurst. However, his writing lacks the grace and style of Hollinghurst, and his characters lack the depth and complexity.
Essentially this is a book about miserable people written in lifeless prose. As a contrast, I'm reading Howard Jacobson at the moment, who writes about miserable More...
Essentially this is a book about miserable people written in lifeless prose. As a contrast, I'm reading Howard Jacobson at the moment, who writes about miserable More...
May 01, 2010
The Lost Language of Cranes, by David Leavitt, produced by Audible Modern Vanguard, downloaded from audible.com.
This is an amazingly well-written book that touched me in many ways. Philip, now 25, has always known that he prefers boys to girls, and men to women and that his sexual fantasies involve men. When he begins a more permanent relationship than usual, he decides that it’s time to come out to his parents. His coming out has disastrous results, causing his parents to deal wi More...
This is an amazingly well-written book that touched me in many ways. Philip, now 25, has always known that he prefers boys to girls, and men to women and that his sexual fantasies involve men. When he begins a more permanent relationship than usual, he decides that it’s time to come out to his parents. His coming out has disastrous results, causing his parents to deal wi More...
Nov 03, 2008
Robin
rated it:
This is a well-written and touching account of a young man coming of age and coming to know himself as gay, learning about himself and his parents as people rather than as the roles life cast them into. I have the feeling that if I had read it when it was published in 1986, it would have been more meaningful simply because it would have been one of very few.
May 22, 2011
Leslie
rated it:
A family in 1980s New York coming to grips with the homosexuality of both the son and the father, the former certainly difficult but the latter far more conflicted and desperate. Leavitt does a wonderful job of showing the terrible toll a life in the closet can take, as Owen struggles to extract himself from the weight of so many years of guilt and fear and shame and secrecy. His misery and his desperate longing to be touched, to be desired, to be known, are moving. In the background is the new
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Nov 04, 2009
Madeleine
rated it:
De verloren taal der kranen.
Beklemmend boek vond ik het. Allemaal mensen die zo opgesloten zitten in zichzelf.De drie hoofdpersonen blikken regelmatig terug op hun leven, dat naar mijn idee wel erg armoedig (emotioneel dan)is verlopen. Communiceren is het probleem, daar verwijst de titel naar. (Een peuter wiens enige contact met de buitenwereld een bouwterrein met hijskranen was, hetgeen het enige geluid was dat hij voort kon brengen)
Sommige passages zijn prachtig verwoord, maar ik More...
Beklemmend boek vond ik het. Allemaal mensen die zo opgesloten zitten in zichzelf.De drie hoofdpersonen blikken regelmatig terug op hun leven, dat naar mijn idee wel erg armoedig (emotioneel dan)is verlopen. Communiceren is het probleem, daar verwijst de titel naar. (Een peuter wiens enige contact met de buitenwereld een bouwterrein met hijskranen was, hetgeen het enige geluid was dat hij voort kon brengen)
Sommige passages zijn prachtig verwoord, maar ik More...
Oct 28, 2011
Laura
rated it:
a strati, tu puoi decidere quali e quanti strati leggere.
Leavitt qui ne ha messi almeno tre: la storia di una famiglia disgregata dall'outing sessuale di due dei suoi membri, una storia su new york, e un sottotesto sui rapporti interpersonali.
quest'ultimo mi ha abbastanza sconcertata, perché Leavitt a 25 anni sembra aver capito quello che io sto iniziando a capire ora, ossia
- che l'amore e l'attrazione sessuale sono due cose distinte e che la necessità di farle confluire nella stessa persona è u More...
Leavitt qui ne ha messi almeno tre: la storia di una famiglia disgregata dall'outing sessuale di due dei suoi membri, una storia su new york, e un sottotesto sui rapporti interpersonali.
quest'ultimo mi ha abbastanza sconcertata, perché Leavitt a 25 anni sembra aver capito quello che io sto iniziando a capire ora, ossia
- che l'amore e l'attrazione sessuale sono due cose distinte e che la necessità di farle confluire nella stessa persona è u More...
Jun 08, 2010
Matthew
rated it:
I liked it, but toward the end had to temper my feelings with the reminder that it was written in 1986, Leavitt’s first novel after debuting many great short stories. The characters’ behaviors—their reactions to the story’s events—pushed my buttons. I don’t wish to have been 25 in 1986, like Philip; nor do I wish to have been 52 in 1986, like Rose and Owen. I constantly wanted these people to wake up and smell the modern world. Still, there’s a lot here to relate to (or cringe toward) in reading
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Sep 01, 2011
Adam
rated it:
the lost language of cranes, a deep understanding to another perhaps by mirroring or imitation, but without a spoken word
a father's closeted homosexuality is mirrored or even mocked by his son's flaunting of his own homosexuality. (published and) set in present day 1986 nyc, it seems ahead of it's time, AIDS issues are a major theme, but more so the resulting forced monogamy of relationships from the fear of contagion... "doomed to happiness"
beautifully written, More...
a father's closeted homosexuality is mirrored or even mocked by his son's flaunting of his own homosexuality. (published and) set in present day 1986 nyc, it seems ahead of it's time, AIDS issues are a major theme, but more so the resulting forced monogamy of relationships from the fear of contagion... "doomed to happiness"
beautifully written, More...
Nov 16, 2010
Trisha
rated it:
it was okay.I would not have read this book if not for a book club. I can't say this book was great, or that it changed me afterwards.
I'm interested to see what others thought.
I thought the book appeared to support the prejudice that homosexuality/bisexuality are either hereditary and, therefore, a disease we need to be able to "cure". Or, that it's just a case of "monkey see monkey do" and if we have a zero tolerance on allowing people to live that way, the More...
I'm interested to see what others thought.
I thought the book appeared to support the prejudice that homosexuality/bisexuality are either hereditary and, therefore, a disease we need to be able to "cure". Or, that it's just a case of "monkey see monkey do" and if we have a zero tolerance on allowing people to live that way, the More...
Dec 06, 2010
Jay
rated it:
What I liked most about this book:
- The interesting parallel between a character who accepted reality and lived within it and the character who tried to hide reality from everyone, including himself. (If I were writing a paper about this book, here's where I'd start.)
- Learning about a place, time, and lifestyle that is at once remote and similar to my own. I usually don't get so many feelings of familiarity while reading about something rather distant from my own experience.
- The More...
- The interesting parallel between a character who accepted reality and lived within it and the character who tried to hide reality from everyone, including himself. (If I were writing a paper about this book, here's where I'd start.)
- Learning about a place, time, and lifestyle that is at once remote and similar to my own. I usually don't get so many feelings of familiarity while reading about something rather distant from my own experience.
- The More...
Oct 03, 2010
Alex
rated it:
Stars: 3.75/5
Overall:
A study in life. A painting in words. A moving, subtly dramatic piece that dissects human nature and human life, splaying it on the table for us to see--and shudder at. I think anyone beyond high school will find a character to relate to, whether you are gay, straight, single, married, working a job you enjoy, working a job you hate, working a job you're good at, in love, in lust, just friends, hoping, dreaming, desperate, depressed, in the closet, out of t More...
Overall:
A study in life. A painting in words. A moving, subtly dramatic piece that dissects human nature and human life, splaying it on the table for us to see--and shudder at. I think anyone beyond high school will find a character to relate to, whether you are gay, straight, single, married, working a job you enjoy, working a job you hate, working a job you're good at, in love, in lust, just friends, hoping, dreaming, desperate, depressed, in the closet, out of t More...
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Dec 04, 2010
Sue
rated it:
I thought this was a very sweet book; as pointed out by others, Leavitt has a very sympathetic portrayal of all of the characters. I was glad that it was an honest portrayal of gay love, not overplayed. The portrait of NYC in the 80s seems very true and real. Leavitt's storytelling is very gentle, neither suspenseful nor boring, but enough to hold your interest and feel for the characters. It did take me a while to get used to his style; the writing in the first part of the book seemed a lit
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Dec 03, 2010
Cindy
rated it:
A story of family and friends coming to grips with who they are and redefining their lives in the process.
These have to be some of the most real, vivid characters I've ever encountered in a novel. Really incredible. So why didn't I give the book 5-stars? I just wasn't compelled or all that interested in the story until about 2/3 of the way through the book.
If you love great, interesting, complex and evolving characters, this is the book for you. If you need a bit more plo More...
These have to be some of the most real, vivid characters I've ever encountered in a novel. Really incredible. So why didn't I give the book 5-stars? I just wasn't compelled or all that interested in the story until about 2/3 of the way through the book.
If you love great, interesting, complex and evolving characters, this is the book for you. If you need a bit more plo More...
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Jan 14, 2011
Kathy
rated it:
Is it a joke that there's a mistake on the very first page of this book? I mean, if Rose is such a meticulous editor, she would have noticed that Owen is walking down Third Avenue during the cold morning on a rainy Sunday afternoon, wouldn't she? I did. And it annoyed me. If it's a joke, it's not a very good joke.
However, on the whole this is a very readable book, even though the premise (a father and his son both secretly gay, unbeknown to one another!) is a little far-fetched. I r More...
However, on the whole this is a very readable book, even though the premise (a father and his son both secretly gay, unbeknown to one another!) is a little far-fetched. I r More...
Oct 10, 2011
Emlyn
rated it:
Preview... Leavitt’s “The Lost Language of Cranes” is a surprisingly fascinating book, one that makes you question what is normal, what is acceptable and what defines love. The tale chronicles three primary characters: a husband and wife and their adult son.
The son, Phillip, is adapting to life as an open homosexual, which is finalized by the revelation of his sexuality to his parents. Phillip’s father, Owen, is forced to confront his own latent homosexuality that has been suppressed b More...
The son, Phillip, is adapting to life as an open homosexual, which is finalized by the revelation of his sexuality to his parents. Phillip’s father, Owen, is forced to confront his own latent homosexuality that has been suppressed b More...
Oct 04, 2010
Suzanne
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I guess this book can be considered controversial because it deals with homosexuality and “coming out.” Because exposing your sexual preferences when you are in the minority is so taboo, there is bound to be a controversy. The story revolves around a family and the secrets kept by father and son. Philip, the 25 yr-old son, decides to confess his love for another man to his parents. This is a brave act, because he doesn’t know how they will react to the news. But he is tired of hiding his li
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Nov 16, 2007
Dusty
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Leavitt's first novel is a kind of twinned coming-out narrative. At its start, Philip is a mid-twentysomething editor of romance novels who hasn't come out to his folks yet. Rose, his mother, is a copy editor, who doesn't seem to take any interest in other people and is as a result pretty uninteresting herself. Owen, her husband, spends every Sunday trolling for sex at a gay porno theater. The plot of the novel throws everyone together, all secrets uncovered, and then tears them apart as a famil
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Feb 06, 2009
Jenny
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I’ve heard about this book for years & finally got around to reading it. It’s strongly felt and strongly written, one of the earliest and most honest books about being a gay man in 20th century America. It details with the issues of two men, one an older married man who gradually faces his desires, and the other a younger man who accepts himself but does not accept the possibility of being loved. The wife/mother is finely drawn too.
Jan 27, 2011
Vfields
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This is a pleasing book. It has the feel of an Ann Tyler novel and that’s a good thing. Both the father and son realize that they’re both gay around the same time. The mother lives in a place where not knowing everything is sometimes the best way to live or better yet the best place to be. It took place during the AIDS crises but didn’t get bogged down with it. The story was more focused on the strength of the characters. This was the best surprise ever.
Feb 04, 2011
Frank
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La storia è incentrata principalmente sul difficile rapporto che può esserci tra figli omosessuali e genitori disillusi, ma è l'amore tra le persone che fa da denominatore comune tra le varie vicende. A volte c'è qualche scena abbastanza esplicita che potrebbe creare un pò di imbarazzo, ma la lealtà dei sentimenti mi pare più significativa ed importante.
Aug 13, 2010
Highly recommended. I look forward to reading this book which may sum up the transition of a time I lived through in the 80's and early 90's when gay young men and their older fathers were finally able to identify their sexual orientation with a modicrom of freedom. Male liberation...
