Customer Reviews

The Lost Language of Cranes: A Novel

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3 star:		(2)
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A wonderful, literary, entertaining and realistic book about the deceptions, heartaches, joys and secrets engendered in a family where homosexuality exists. Though this book is already nearly 10 years old (or older?) it still feels contemporary, and I think that is because the relationships smack of the truth. I simply love the novel's poetic metaphor, that of the lost language of the cranes. For that reason alone it is worth taking the emotional journey of reading Leavitt's first, and I think best, novel.

Perhaps I shouldn't review this book. "The Lost Language of Cranes" is both a work of fiction and an important document in the history of gay life and literature - its concerns don't touch my life directly. Some in the gay community might love it for its topic alone, and resent any straight person's criticism. But I'm going to review it anyway.

Pretty simple stuff, really. It's about Owen and Rose Benjamin and their adult son Philip, a typical New York family except that Philip is gay and hasn't told his parents yet. Turns out Owen is also gay and hasn't told his wife - she thinks he might have a mistress squirreled away, and doesn't seem to mind too much. (Actually, he satisfies his urges at a gay porn theater.) In any case, Rose knows that something is up, and occasionally takes a lover herself. All of this is obviously unstable, and when Philip finally comes out, things have to change.

I'm sure that a lot of gay people rejoiced when this novel hit the shelves in the mid-1980s, a time when (according to author David Leavitt) there wasn't much gay fiction to be had other than pornography or low-quality pulp romances. African-Americans probably felt the same about "The Invisible Man", and Jews about "Goodbye, Columbus". Here's a group that's had little or no presence in literature, and suddenly there's a book or books about their lives. It proves that your presence is worth looking at and writing about. I'm therefore sorry to say that from a strictly literary standpoint, "Lost Language of Cranes" is mediocre.

Not godawful, mind you - far from it. I give David Leavitt major points for prioritizing his characters over his plot points, as I would be grateful to any author for doing that. Surely there weren't many novels before 1986 in which a young person comes out to his or her parents, but there were more than enough novels of similar familial confrontation to make the plotline a cliché. In the hands of an unskilled author, you'd get the confrontation, the pain and tears, the period of separation, and finally the joyful reunion and forgiveness all around. Yawn. That's not how life works, and David Leavitt was too good even in his twenties to succumb to that cheap of a structure. Owen, Rose and Philip deal with each other in all the loving, clumsy, wounded and uncertain ways that a real family might, and "Lost Language" is a valuable work for that reason alone. The characters are pretty good - it's in the language and narration that this novel falls short.

Leavitt's images of New York City can be intriguing. You get the sense from time to time that there's something hidden behind the skyline, which fits in well with his characters' attempts to keep secrets. He's also good at showing how a gay person might find certain sorts of images (including pornography) liberating, which helps make his characters deeply sympathetic. His dialogue, on the other hand, clops along most of the time - if a character has anything to say that takes up more than a sentence or two, that person frequently resorts to abstractions and sounds like a political pamphlet. Which may be realistic - some people do make speeches in everyday discourse - but it doesn't read very well.

The author provides detailed backstories for pretty nearly everyone in his novel, which isn't necessary and slows the narrative way down. As a rule, supporting characters are just that, designed to support the main action. Tell everything about all of them and it can be hard to follow the principal plot or even determine what it is, especially in a midlength work like this. Dickens sometimes provided excessive background information on his minor characters, but his works were five or six hundred pages long - everyone had room to stretch out.

And here's something odd - despite the presence of one black character, Leavitt's New York City strikes one as surprisingly homogenous. Almost all the characters in "Lost Language" have middle-class jobs and backgrounds - they're all editors or educators or creative types of one kind or another, and almost all of them are white. Even his black character is a Ph.D. candidate and the adopted daughter of an upper-middle-class black couple. The last time I ran across such a pale, well-off, intellectual NYC, it was in a Woody Allen movie, and even he couldn't get away with it for long.

Now, like any author, Leavitt is entitled to create whatever setting pleases him. My point is that this one doesn't serve his story. He's trying to be realistic about the emerging gay world, and his city is the stuff of fantasy. And for goodness's sake, everyone's so well-behaved, in the porn theaters and everywhere else. For a tale this emotionally charged, I would have expected at least one genuine outburst, but even the most tortured characters remain so sedate I can't quite believe their pain.

Maybe the saddest thing is the way this novel handles its central image, the lost language of the title. One of the novel's characters runs across the story of a baby, frequently left alone by his drug-addicted mother, who saw a construction site through his window and took to imitating the big cranes. This probably has something to do with gay people trying to find a satisfying way to express themselves, but Leavitt doesn't integrate it into the story, so it remains an intriguing image that could just as easily have been left out. Too bad - in some ways it's the most inventive thing in the novel.

In short, "Lost Language of Cranes" has some serious flaws. What makes it worth reading is the energy behind it. The novel is the first lengthy piece by a young author who had the courage to tackle something close to his heart, and the courage shows. So, not a classic, but a good early step.

Benshlomo says, Go, young man, go.

When I am given the task of writing a review such a wonderful book, I have to wonder where to start. Leavitt's writing is fresh, beautiful, and goes down so smooth you don't realize you have the pages turning until you stop and look to see how much you've read. The breadth and accuracy of emotions portrayed in this book are truly extrodinary. This is truly a beautiful story that will stay with me in my heart. My heart goes out to Rose, who has to contend with so much and wonder if she gives off pheromones that turn men gay. My sympathies find their way to Owen who struggles with an issue his whole life, and only finds that he took it the wrong direction and wasted it and hurt someone that he love--but not in the way he might have originally thought he would. And I send a whole spectrum of my emotions to Philip whoes personality and feelings in many ways reflect my own; Philip's strugle is the most completely documented. The novel comes to a closing in which the reader is left to speculate where things will go from there, and I have to complain, but the complaint is mostly because by that point I never wanted the novel to end. While Edmund White proves to be the best gay writer of his generation, David Leavitt takes the tourch and makes it burn even brighter. And for that he is to be celbrated.

This was the first Leavitt novel I read, and I followed it up with his wondeful collection, Family Dancing. I am now reading Arkansas: Three Novellas. Prejudice hurts us, but the mainstream suffers more than they know for not finding and embracing a book of such beauty.

I first read this novel as I was getting over a crush, and about to enter what turned out to be a short but suffocating relationship with some bimbo Adonis. As a gay male, it was refreshing to read about characters that I could relate to, especially the protagonist.The setting was contemporary to my experience as well. I urge anyone who has just come out, and WANTS a stable relationship, to read this book.It offersa variety of relationship types, and it's left to the reader to decide what they want,and what they don't want.Remember never to give up hope, but always keep a belief in fate as well.

I loved this book. David Leavitt writes with such feeling and sensitivity that you really feel you get to know the people in his stories. His portraits of the young gay man coming out, the middle-aged closet case, and the wife who gradually grasps the fact of her husband's secret life, are done with such depth and understanding that we feel for everyone involved. Leavitt does not take a noticeable stance in favor of either side; one of his gay men is a self-involved jerk who evokes little sympathy, though one does pity him, in a way. Leavitt's novel, in short, is about human beings, with all our faults and foibles. This one will stay with you long after you finish reading it. Lovely and heart-wrenching.

"The Lost Language of Cranes" is an excellent book. David Leavitt tells a story on the relations between a Deep-deep-in-the-closet father and his Going-out-of-the-closet young son. David Leavitt portrays the difficulty of the father to be a homosexual at an age when it was nowhere near acceptable, his denial and self deceit and his current regret - the voice of the old generation(s). He adroitly describes the son's feelings of self-discovery with more than a flare of optimism and in great sensitivity and in the name of the new generation he proves that happiness and love are attainable through self acceptance.

It is so rare for me to read a book that leaves such a resounding vibration in my mind. I read this book when I turned 16, it is a year later now, and as I reread the book it holds as true now as it did then. It is both sad and terrifying when you can so closely identify with a character going through a difficult time. At the time that I read the book I was getting over a relationship that should have never existed. The way that I interacted with my ex was the same way that Phillip and Eliot acted toward one another. It not only opened my eyes to the fact that I shouldn't have been in this situation due to the fact that it was unhealthy, but that I could change; there was hope for me yet. I would tell anyone that is feeling sorry for themselves over the fact that their first love, or anyone for that matter, has left them to pick up this book and read it. It will help. Sometimes, what you need is right there in front of you, you just don't see it.

I read this book for a class, and enjoyed it much more than I ever expected, especially in retrospect. I think it takes a little time to really get into, especially because Leavitt jumps back and forth between the three main characters and storylines, but once you get into the rhythm of the story, you are drawn in. Leavitt does a great character study of Owen, Rose, and Philip, and by the end of the novel, I felt like I knew them. Leavitt has an accessible wrting style, but the book itself is very literary and complex. For a first novel, especially, I think it's exceptional.

The Lost Language of Cranes is the only book I have ever read by this author. Still, its evocative style and powerful prose made a lasting impression. The author tells a story of two generations of gay men, a father and son in the same family, both in their own particular closets. The pain these characters suffer is both palpable and moving.

Most beautiful is the author's use of the allegory of linguistics and feral children, in particular people struggling to develop a language in which they can communicate. The image is poignant and made more powerful with repetition. Each example given is subtly different, yet telling about the life of gay men and lesbian struggling to find a language that they can call their own.

A wonderful read for any one, gay, straight or otherwise.

If I had to pick the most personally influential book that I have read in the past 5 years, it would be this one. This book was recommended to me by a similarly situated friend in England. The reality of the situation is amazing. I don't know how this young man could get inside the skin of a middle aged married closet case but he sure did.The family drama that the book contains is really heart-breaking. I won't go into the plot further because I want you to read this book, especially those who need it most. You know who you are. I'm asking you and telling you!