The Lost Language of Cranes
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The Lost Language of Cranes is a novel by David Leavitt, published in 1986. A TV movie of the same name made in 1991.
The Lost Language of Cranes was the first novel of David Leavitt, and is a book in the English language written directly and openly about gay life, the coming out issue and the difficulty of living in a heterosexual hostile ordinary society.
Although the story occurs the in the 1980s, the difficulties of gay people and the treatment from the public is still relevant in some of places in the world, including the U.S.
The novel was adapted into a television movie in 1991 starring Brian Cox, Angus Macfadyen, Eileen Atkins and Ben Daniels.[1]
[edit] Plot summary
The novel focuses on a gay son, Philip, who comes out to his parents Owen (Brian Cox) and Rose (Eileen Atkins). What begins as an ostensibly generic coming out tale, surprisingly takes Phillips's coming out very badly. And Owen we learn has more in common with his son than anyone would like to think about. It turns out that Owen, the father, is also gay. Owen who lives in different, more conservative and maybe old fashioned living, had to live in existential "exposure" fear. Rose, the mother, who feels non attractive for long years, uses to betray her husband. the coming out of Philip turns out as a reavilling the life of lies and deceit the two of them had live.
A sub plot follows young twin girls who have developed their own private language, outside of which they cannot communicate. It's a brilliant metaphor for how gay people build understanding often through their own isolated experiences, and build language and knowledge that is often misunderstood, threatened and indeed fragile when it comes into contact with the wider world.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
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