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The Lost Language of Cranes

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 2,160 ratings · 103 reviews

David Leavitt's extraordinary first novel, now reissued in paperback, is a seminal work about family, sexual identity, home, and loss.

Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published May 2nd 2005 by Bloomsbury USA (first published 1986)

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Jan 08, 2008 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

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...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Rontab rated it 3 of 5 stars

an excerpt, when Rose realized his husband is gay:

But how could she have know that then? Homosexuality was a peculiarity to her, a condition to be treated in hospitals - not a way of life to be embraced or saved from. She had marched down the aisle, and now it seemed to her ironic that she should have seen in Owen's face assurance,a sign that she was aking the right decision, when in fact she was making the first and largest of a series of mistakes that would carry her out into her life like an...more an excerpt, when Rose realized his husband is gay:

But how could she have know that then? Homosexuality was a peculiarity to her, a condition to be treated in hospitals - not a way of life to be embraced or saved from. She had marched down the aisle, and now it seemed to her ironic that she should have seen in Owen's face assurance,a sign that she was aking the right decision, when in fact she was making the first and largest of a series of mistakes that would carry her out into her life like an undertow, then cease , leaving her stranded, fifty-two years old, with nothing to look back on but a chain of wrong decisions carefully made, blindly made, an exam failed bacause the student has made one essential, thoughtless error over and over. Oh, why hadn't he told her? Why hadn't he let her know? Perhaps he imagined that those secret feelings he harbored would go away, fade with time; perhaps he thought he could cure himself, or that she could cure him. No, even if he'd told her, she realized (and it was a vague consolation), she would have married him anyway, would have believed, as he did, that marriage would provide the cure for the disease. The secret was thus buried, but even from underground it had its influence. A single lie, twisted and preserved, riddled the fabric of their lives together like a flaw in silk, so that a single rip might tear everything apart. They were not, and never had been, what they seemed; that she had somehow known all along. But how shameful that she had lived this life for more than twenty years, and never known, not even secretly, what it was they were.

and at the confrontation:
Don't interrupt me. No. And not for the stupid reason you think I'm thinking. Because I was very careful, Owen. I made sure I never disrupted our lives together. It was a separate thing, something i needed - for reasons which are now clear and obvious. But with you - what you're saying is the the whole premise of our marriage has been a lie, a sham. And that's bigger than cheating on someone. Because it means for you that our marriage was the cheat, your - other life, that was the real thing." her voice grew suddenly softer. "With me," Rose said, "you were always the real thing."(less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Scrittevolmente rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un libro noioso. Si tratta del primo romanzo vero e proprio dell’autore, pertanto una giustificazione ce l’ha, glielo concedo.
Lo stile è già riconoscibile, con le sue digressioni che spaziano e si diramano come tanti fili di ragnatela, personaggi secondari ben costruiti, ambientazioni precise. Peccato che sia tutto troppo.
Le digressioni – peculiarità che in altri romanzi successivi è persino un punto di forza – qui sono un universo di infodump che si occupa di ogni singolo dettaglio fino a rasen...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Paola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa

Non sono riuscita a staccare le mie manine e la testa e il cuore da questo libro, finito a tempo di record. Come capita solo ai libri che hanno un'anima dentro.
Anzi le anime dei personaggi e il loro relazionarsi che una prosa intensa, delicata, e profonda come in questo romanzo di Leawitt entra nel cuore e nella mente.
E' un libro sulla ricerca: di sé, della possibilità di vivere la propria sessualità con minore sofferenza e maggiore libertà. E quanto questo sia importante affinché la vita abbia...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

After reading the blurb for this one, I was a bit concerned that I was setting myself up for the Manhattan Hollinghurst. Luckily, this wasn't the case. There's none of the pretentiousness in Leavitt's writing, he's a straight forward, but evocative writer, and the whole book had more humanity in the first 20 pages than the whole of the damned Swimming Pool Library. It is guilty of being overly romantic in the odd place, and the ghoulish spectre of AIDS feels old fashioned, which is enitrely not...more

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May 22, 2010 Surreysmum rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1989, homoerotic-fiction-by-men, general-fiction

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 se...more

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Nov 02, 2009 Alarra rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporaryfiction, gblt

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...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Davis Aujourd'hui rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 lyrical qua...more

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Dec 01, 2010 El rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-list, late20th-centurylit

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. Friends, families, lovers.

It was not intentional that I finished The Lost Language of Cranes on World AIDS Day, but I'm glad I did. It's first the story of Philip Benjamin, a young gay man who struggles with the first stage of informing his parents of his homosexuality. The story covers not only Philip's perspective but also those of his mother, Rose, and his father, Owen. A double-whammy for Rose when she finds out Owen harbors his own homosexual tendencies. The three members of the family are forced to deal with their own opinions, feelings, emotions, and fears that come with these realizations. On the other end of the spectrum there is Philip's boyfriend, Eliot, who was raised by a homosexual couple after his parents died. The relationship between Philip and Eliot is often sad to read, and hard in other parts to see Philip try so hard to make something of the relationship that perhaps was never meant to be. Other characters - such as Eliot's roommate, Jerene, who has spent the last seven years writing a dissertation about lost languages - also serve pivotal roles in the telling of the story.

The story itself is filled with a lot of beauty. The writing is almost flawless as far as I'm concerned. I've read Leavitt's The Body of Jonah Boyd and was not that impressed with it. The Lost Language of Cranes felt much more powerful and much more complete. I was able to commiserate with each of the characters individually, though I've never dealt with the experience, for example, of having my son tell me he is gay. Leavitt managed to tell a universal story of the difficult and often controversial subject of homosexuality, especially considering the publication date of 1986 - when the AIDS pandemic was relatively new and so many people still thought you could contract the disease by drinking out of an infected person's glass.

The story itself also takes place in the 80s and there is a good deal of discussion about AIDS, particularly in relation to Philip's character and his own fears and worries. I saw somewhere that the story felt to someone to be "dated", and I didn't get that feeling at all. This could have been written today and still been about the 80s. Leavitt's experiences with being a gay man in NYC in the 80s gave him a lot to go on for this book, a lot of material, right down to articles published at the time suggesting homosexuals limit their sexual partners to 10 people - which of course grew to a smaller number as it became evident that HIV/AIDS was not something that was just going to go away. So "dated" is not the word I would use here. I find it just as relevant today, if not more so, than in the 80s when The Lost Language of the Cranes was first published.(less)

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Jul 26, 2012 Amerynth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, dyfunctional-families, fiction, lgbt, read-2012, sexuality

I enjoyed reading "The Lost Language of Cranes," which surprised me because I didn't find David Leavitt's writing style particularly engaging. However, the story itself, a quintessential coming out tale, was put together well. Leavitt has interesting ideas that (especially the story that relates to the title)that elevates the book above the run-of-the-mill.

The novel tells the story of Owen, Rose and Philip, their gay son who falls in love for the first time and struggles with the idea of coming...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Tancredi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbt, scorrete-lacrime, sfida-comodino, sfida-compleanno, statunitensi, preferiti, sfida-alfabeto

"Ciascuno, a modo suo, trova ciò che deve amare, e lo ama; la finestra diventa uno specchio; qualunque sia la cosa che amiamo, è quello che noi siamo."

Ho scoperto Leavitt tardi, confesso: e quel Ballo di famiglia, che pure mi ha rivelato l'atroce sensibilità e capacità di un ventenne, quale era l'autore al momento della sua pubblicazione, m'era sembrato una noia mortale. Ripetitivo, monotematico, estremamente riduttivo delle mille complicazioni della vita.
Quale estremo piacere, allora, scoprire...more "Ciascuno, a modo suo, trova ciò che deve amare, e lo ama; la finestra diventa uno specchio; qualunque sia la cosa che amiamo, è quello che noi siamo."

Ho scoperto Leavitt tardi, confesso: e quel Ballo di famiglia, che pure mi ha rivelato l'atroce sensibilità e capacità di un ventenne, quale era l'autore al momento della sua pubblicazione, m'era sembrato una noia mortale. Ripetitivo, monotematico, estremamente riduttivo delle mille complicazioni della vita.
Quale estremo piacere, allora, scoprire La lingua perduta delle gru. Laddove, al termine del primo libro, mi chiedevo "ma è davvero tutto qui?", in questo secondo e ancora giovanile romanzo (nel 1986 io nascevo e Leavitt intanto aveva venticinque anni) la domanda diventa un'affermazione: "è davvero tutto qui". C'è tutto: l'irriducibile dissezione del quotidiano, le violente contraddizioni della vita, la chirurgia asettica e precisa della vita familiare, e l'amore, che ti condanna e ti salva.
Dotato di una scrittura meravigliosa, davvero impensabile per un ragazzo di quell'età, ma ancora più incredibile per la sua capacità di fare a pezzi la realtà, di spiarne gli anfratti più oscuri: con una maturità inspiegabile Leavitt analizza i riti quotidiani, li scompone, sviscera le liturgie sacre della famiglia, disseziona i ruoli. Potente è la caratterizzazione dei suoi personaggi, straordinariamente audace quella di Rose, la madre, centro indiscusso dell'intero romanzo, continuamente scomposta e ricomposta. Il momento più alto è sicuramente il monologo di Rose, nella scena-chiave del romanzo: la famiglia riunita a cena insieme all'avvenente ospite, estraneo che incrina un triangolo tutt'altro che perfetto. Rose si rifugia nella sua sicura posizione di osservatore esterno, fredda e calcolatrice, scolpisce con lo sguardo il marito e il figlio, attratti dal fascino dell'ospite, prova l'impulso di rovesciare l'intero tavolo, lo placa, allora si sottrae mentalmente, lascia che il suo pensiero scivoli tra i ricordi, in un flusso di coscienza dal sapore joyciano che trascina il lettore.
A fianco della madre, nella cui complessità Leavitt riversa tutta la sua femminile sensibilità, l'autore colloca le due figure maschili, complementari e opposte: il padre represso e depresso, stritolato da un'attrazione mista a repulsione verso un mondo nuovo, e il figlio, Philip, audace nella sua resa incondizionata all'amore, con tutte le sue conseguenze. Spingendosi oltre, lo sguardo di Leavitt dipinge una New York che si fa volutamente cartolina turistica, con descrizioni posate, equilibrate, mentre confina i suoi personaggi in spazi chiusi.
E che dire del significato che l'intero romanzo assume, alla luce del titolo? Scelta audace e inusuale, quella di staccare il messaggio dal medium, di dichiarare apertamente la morale della storia, eppure ponendola al di fuori di esso, dedicandovi uno striminzito capitolo centrale che taglia in due il romanzo e inchioda al centro della lettura il suo perforante senso. La lingua perduta delle gru, richiamandosi a un fatto psichiatrico realmente avvenuto, è il linguaggio segreto dell'amoore, sono le parole non dette che s'incastrano tra madre e figlio costruendo un muro di silenzio, è l'unica certezza che rimane mentre il romanzo finisce, proprio quando la storia sembra cominciare per davvero: qualunque sia la cosa che amiamo, è quello che noi siamo.(less)

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Apr 27, 2011 Julia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-literature

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 that are so psy...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Ilya rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 exposition, p...more

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Nov 19, 2010 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, fiction

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 finally acc...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

A beautifully written novel with well developed characters, intertextuality, wild emotions and all different kinds of love. This book is definitely of its era. It is fascinating to get a glimpse of 1980's New York, rental prices, opinions, family structures and then to draw your own comparisons on how much society has changed and adapted in the past 30 years. Leavitt is captures the everyday, mundane nature of every day life with ease and narrates through multiple perspectives seamlessly. I did...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Rob Walter rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 people with...more

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May 01, 2010 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2010-audio-books, 2010fiction

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 with what they ha...more

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Nov 03, 2008 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Robin by: my literary agent

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.

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May 22, 2011 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, 20th-century-fiction

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...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Donna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sad-books, gay-fiction

This is a coming of age story for two men who are father and son, both of them gay. The book proceeds to tell how the son, Philip, finds the courage to tell his parents about his sexual orientation now that he has a special man in his life, while the father, Owen, lives in a state of denial about his own sexual preferences, hiding it from his wife and son, though he grows more careless of his secret as the book wears on. The story takes place in the 1980's, so it is rather dated. Though I suspec...more

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Nov 04, 2009 Madeleine rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 had toch vaa...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Thais rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Partiamo dal titolo, che a prima vista sembra non quadrare molto con l’argomento trattato. Questo libro parla di omosessualità, e allora cosa c’entrano le gru e il loro linguaggio? Leavitt lascia volutamente che il lettore capisca da sé la connessione, inserendo a metà libro l’episodio di un bambino molto piccolo che, trascurato dalla madre, inizia a imitare le gru di un cantiere che vede dalla finestra, e per tutta la vita amerà solo quelle: le gru diventano l’oggetto di un amore strano, inconc...more Partiamo dal titolo, che a prima vista sembra non quadrare molto con l’argomento trattato. Questo libro parla di omosessualità, e allora cosa c’entrano le gru e il loro linguaggio? Leavitt lascia volutamente che il lettore capisca da sé la connessione, inserendo a metà libro l’episodio di un bambino molto piccolo che, trascurato dalla madre, inizia a imitare le gru di un cantiere che vede dalla finestra, e per tutta la vita amerà solo quelle: le gru diventano l’oggetto di un amore strano, inconcepibile per gran parte della gente.

E forse è così che molti vedono ancora l’omosessualità: il romanzo è ambientato nella New York degli anni Ottanta, quando la paura dell’AIDS era all’apice, la tematica era ancora un tabù e faceva paura, molto più di oggi.

Rose e Owen sono una coppia di mezza età la cui unica preoccupazione, inizialmente, sembra essere l’appartamento che non possono permettersi di acquistare. La loro vita verrà sconvolta nel momento in cui il figlio Philip, già adulto, dichiarerà la propria omosessualità. Ma le vite di Rose e di Owen non erano poi così perfette neanche prima: lei l’ha tradito ripetutamente, lui non è mai riuscito a venire a patti con il fatto di essere gay, e frequenta cinema per soli uomini per sfogare i propri istinti. Tuttavia, non si tratta di un romanzaccio scandalistico o pornografico: tutti i personaggi soffrono moltissimo per la loro condizione e si trovano ad affrontare scelte e discussioni che li mandano in una crisi profonda, personale, drammatica.

È un libro che analizza le pieghe dell’animo umano e del dialogo tra familiari, tra amanti, tra amici. Ognuno dei personaggi principali ha un atteggiamento diverso riguardo al parlare di sé con gli altri: Philip è onesto e ingenuo e pensa che l’unico modo per vivere sereni sia parlare chiaro, sua madre Rose, al contrario, ben sapendo che quando una cosa viene detta non si può più tornare indietro, preferisce non sapere e non raccontare, rinchiudersi nel silenzio, nel non detto, come una sorta di protezione da ciò che non vuole affrontare. Owen, il marito di Rose, quasi esplode dalla voglia di confessare quella che percepisce come una colpa, ma non ne ha il coraggio. Le parole sono centrali in questo libro, e hanno una potenza devastante: dire o non dire una certa cosa può davvero stravolgere la nostra vita e quella degli altri. Ma anche la paura di rivelarsi può condizionarci al punto da renderci insopportabili a noi stessi, rinchiusi in una gabbia dalla quale non riusciamo a uscire. Quando Philip parla ai genitori della propria omosessualità, la reazione di Rose è la rabbia, quella di Owen le lacrime: sa che quello è un punto di non ritorno, che non potrà nascondersi ancora a lungo, e allo stesso tempo è felice che suo figlio sia così coraggioso e che sia nato in un’epoca che gli permette di assecondare il suo orientamento sessuale invece di imbrigliarlo in un matrimonio infelice.

L’amore è vissuto da tutti i personaggi come una pulsione ineludibile, che influenza tutto il resto, sia esso vissuto come una malattia, da parte di Owen, o con naturalezza, come nel caso di Philip, il povero Philip che soffre perché la madre si allontana da lui dopo la sua rivelazione, come se scaricasse su di lui il peso di un’intera vita vissuta nella finzione.

È un libro duro, spigoloso, lento e descrittivo, che fa male e ci regala un bello scorcio su un mondo che osserviamo spesso solo dall’esterno, magari anche con una certa aria di saccenteria. Non è certo un romanzo di avventure, non succede granché: il viaggio è tutto interiore. Perché ognuno deve riuscire a capire che cosa ama: anche se il percorso è lungo e doloroso, noi siamo ciò che amiamo, e non possiamo fare altro che accettarlo.
(less)

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Jan 09, 2013 Maryann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001

Philip is the single child of Owen and Rose, and he is searching for love. When he finds romance with Eliot, he feels the need to come out to his parents. Unbeknownst to Philip or Rose, Owen has struggled with his own homosexuality for years. Thus the stage is set for how honesty and revelation will affect each of them, individually and in their relationships. There was a lot of story to this book and it was well-written. The characters had a lot of life and the conflict presented to them was ea...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Laura Koan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jun 08, 2010 Matthew Allard rated it 3 of 5 stars

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...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

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, but I would've chosen a different...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Trisha rated it 2 of 5 stars

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, then less people will be gay because they...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 characters are...more

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Oct 03, 2010 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: queer, fiction

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 the closet or just...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, fiction, american

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 little...more

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Boxall's 1001 Bo...: November {2010} Discussion -- THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES by David Leavitt	29	106	Mar 02, 2011 01:46pm

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About David Leavitt

Leavitt is a graduate of Yale University and a professor at the University of Florida, where he is the co-director of the creative writing program. He is also the editor of Subtropics magazine, The University of Florida's literary review.

Leavitt, who is openly gay, has frequently explored gay issues in his work. He divides his time between Florida and Tuscany, Italy.

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“Hope had stolen into his life just as he was growing comfortable with despair.” — 3 people liked it

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