The Lost Language of Cranes is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by David Leavitt

David Leavitt

David Leavitt is an American novelist.-Biography:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Leavitt is a graduate of Yale University. and a professor at the University of Florida...

, first published in 1986. A British TV movie of the novel was made in 1991. The movie was released on dvd

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in 2009.

Plot introduction

The Lost Language of Cranes was the second novel by David Leavitt, and deals primarily with the difficulties a young gay

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 man, Philip Benjamin, has in coming out

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

 to his parents, Rose and Owen, and with their subsequent reactions.

Voyages

Rose and Owen find out that their apartment is going co-op. Rose visits her son, who lives in a shabby neighborhood; he says he likes to go to the East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

. One Sunday, she takes a walk, goes to an automat

Automat

An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines.-Concept:Originally, the machines took only nickels...

, and bumps into her husband. The latter goes to a gay pornographic cinema, where a man leaves him his number.

Philip and Eliot are in bed; Philip gets up to do the dishes. He thinks back to how they met through Sally. Back to the parents, Owen gets back to his apartment, soaked through. Philip and Eliot then wake up; Philip seems keen on flatmate Jerene's research on lost languages. There is then an account of Jerene's childhood up to her coming out to her parents and being spurned by them. Philip and Eliot then talk about their experiences with men. Philip goes on to remember the way he would masturbate a lot and how he tried to ask girls out - and they refused. Finally, he recalls going to a gay pornographic cinema when he was seventeen.

Myths of origin

Owen calls Alex Melchor and finds out it was a wrong number. Philip asks Eliot to introduce him to Derek and Geoffrey. Later, he goes to his parent's flat to look at Derek's books. Jerene is getting ready for a date. Philip meets Eliot's foster parents for dinner, then they go to a gay bar where Philip walks into old acquaintance Alex Kamarov. Outside, Eliot admits to being unsure about their relationship; nevertheless they return to Eliot's, where he teaches Philip how to shave properly.

Philip eventually comes out to his parents. His mother is tersely averse; his father says it is fine, though he starts weeping as soon as the young man has left.

The crane-child

In the library, Jerene reads an article about a child who emulates cranes as this was the only thing he would see out of his window from his cot, and his parents weren't about. He was then sent to a psych ward.

Father and Son

Eliot doesn't return Philip's calls; when Jerene meets Philip for a drink, she admits there is not much that can be done. Later, Philip talks to his friend Brad. He then gets really drunk out on the town to forget. A few days later, he meets Rob in a bar and they return to the boy's dorm room where they have sex. Subsequently, Philip does not return his calls.

Owen calls a gay hotline, then hangs up and calls Alex Melchor, who tells him to call someone else, and then Philip, hanging up before they can talk. Later, the Philip runs into his parents and tells them he's broken up with Eliot.

Rose says to Philip that she needs more time to ruminate. Owen calls a gay sex phone-line and starts sobbing. He then goes to a gay bar and meets another man named Frank; they go to the man's flat and have sex. When he gets home, it's half past two in the morning, and Rose is hurt.

Owen invites Winston Penn to dinner, and attempts to fix him up with Philip. That night, Rose finally realizes that Owen is gay too. While Philip and Brad get into bed together, Rose and Owen have a big argument. Owen goes off to a Burger King

Burger King

Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

 until he calls his son asking for a place to stay for the night. There and then he confesses to being gay.

Characters

• Rose Benjamin, a copy editor. She likes order and cooking. She reads the New York Times and is gullible to their stories regarding AIDS
  AIDS
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
  
  . She also likes to do crosswords and acrostics.
• Owen Benjamin, a teacher. He is said to be quiet. He lives on Second Avenue
  Second Avenue (Manhattan)
  Second Avenue is an avenue on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan extending from Houston Street at its south end to the Harlem River Drive at 128th Street at its north end. A one-way street, vehicular traffic runs only downtown. A bicycle lane in the left hand portion from 55th...
  
   with his wife Rose.
• Philip Benjamin, Rose and Owen's son, he is twenty-five years old and lives on the West Side
  West Side (Manhattan)
  The West Side of Manhattan refers to the side of Manhattan Island which abuts the Hudson River and faces New Jersey. Fifth Avenue, Central Park, and lower Broadway separate it from the East Side. The major neighborhoods on the West Side are West Harlem, Morningside Heights, Manhattan Valley, Upper...
  
  . He works in publishing as does his mother. His voice is once compared to that of Greta Garbo
  Greta Garbo
  Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
  
  . He is gay, likes to go out in the East Village
  East Village, Manhattan
  The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
  
   and lives on his own.
• Mrs Lubin, a widow who lives in the same building as Rose and Owen.
• Arnold Selensky, a friend of Owen's. He runs a video rental business.
• Carole Schneebaum, a co-worker of Rose's.
• Bob Haber, a man Owen meets at a gay pornographic cinema. He confuses him with Alex Melchor.
• Eliot Abrams, Philip's boyfriend, who does freelance work. He then breaks up with Philip and goes to live in Paris
  Paris
  Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
  
  , where he moves in with a depressed
  Depression (mood)
  Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
  
   young man.
• Derek Moulthorp, a gay man writing children's books. He brought up Eliot with his partner.
• Geoffrey Bacon, Derek's partner, who brought up Eliot with Derek.
• Sally, a friend of Philip's. She is a tax analyst.
• Jerene, Eliot's black roommate. An early bird and a workaholic. She works in a library and does research on lost languages. She grew up in Westport
  Westport, Connecticut
  -Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....
  
   and was adopted by foster parents.
• Mr Samuel J. Parks, Jerene's father. He is a lawyer.
• Margaret, Jerene's mother.
• Jessica, Jerene's girlfriend at high school.
• Cornelia Patterson, a black lesbian Jerene looked up to for inspiration while in college.
• Timmy Musseo, Eliot's first boyfriend, at age eleven.
• Ben Hartley, Eliot's first real lover, at age seventeen.
• Dmitri Kamarov, Philip's first lover. He later went to MIT.
• Alex Kamarov, Dmitri's brother, gay too.
• Gerard, Philip's straight childhood friend.
• Maxon, the head of the English department at a college in New York City, who dislikes Owen's marxist psychoanalytic stance.
• Karl Mutter, an American archaeologist, in Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
  .
• Rhea Mutter, Karl's wife, an archaeologist too, though specialized in Mexico
  Mexico
  The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
  
   and without a fellowship.
• Mira, Karl and Rhea's daughter.
• Brad Robinson, a friend of Sally's and Philip's from college, with whom he eventually sleeps.
• Rob, a young man from Columbia University
  Columbia University
  Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
  
  , whom Philip sleeps with after his break-up with Eliot.
• Roger Bell, a co-worker of Rose's.
• Penelope, a co-worker of Rose's. Her seventeen-year-old son is gay, and she is questioning her own sexual identity.
• Darryl, Penelope's husband, whom she left after she found him in bed with three Indonesian
  Indonesians
  Indonesians may be:*any nation or ethnic group of Indonesia**see Demographics of Indonesia**see Overseas Indonesians**see Ethnic groups in Indonesia**see Native Indonesians...
  
   prostitutes.
• Nick, a co-worker of Rose's, with whom she had a five-year affair seven years ago.
• Nadia, Nick's wife.
• Winston Penn, a co-worker of Owen's. Owen thinks he is gay. He lives in Hoboken
  Hoboken, New Jersey
  Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
  
  . He likes to listen to Bruce Springsteen
  Bruce Springsteen
  Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
  
  . Although he is fine with Philip's homosexuality, he has a girlfriend, though she lives in Dallas. He is also very aggressive with other drivers and likes to drive fast.
• Brad, co-worker of Owen's, who is openly gay. Winston likes him, thus niggling Owen.
• Frank, a man Owen meets in a gay bar. He is older and married like Owen, and the latter intends to see him again, as he confesses to his son in the last few pages.
• Laura Finley, Jerene's new girlfriend. She likes to cook.
• Nellie, Jerene's grandmother. She lives in an old people's home and watching soap opera
  Soap opera
  A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
  
  s is her day's highlight.

Main themes

• Homosexuality
• Coming out : Philip comes out to his parents; Jerene came out to her parents and was disowned; Owen eventually comes out to his wife and his son.
• Gay father : Owen explains his unquestionable sense of filial love, but admits he grew up at a time when homosexuality was regarded as a disease and feared his son would spurn him if he found out he was gay.
• Homophobia : Rose spurns both her son and her husband after she finds out they are gay.

Critical reception

It has been said that 'the novel sums up the history of gay books themselves': that is, from the pangs of opprobrium (Owen) to self-acceptance (Philip).