Friday's Forgotten Books, Friday, December 12, 2014

THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES, David Leavitt.

Published in the 1980s, I read this in 1992. The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of twenty-five-year-old Philip Benjamin, who comes out to his parents when he falls in love with a man. Philip’s parents have their own problems: pressure from developers and the loss of their home. But Philip’s father’s own struggle with his suppressed homosexuality, realized only in Sunday afternoon visits to gay porn theaters, is the real heartbreak in the story.

The book does a good job in detailing the difference in society's reaction to the issue of homosexuality. His father was never permitted to act on his desires in any satisfying way. 

There is also a good filmed version of this story.


Sergio Angelini, BURY ME DEEP, Harold Q. Masur
Mark Baker, MT. RANIER, Sandy Dengler
Joe Barone, A MIND TO MURDER, P.D. James
Brian Busby, Christmas Offerings
Bill Crider, THE COMPLEAT TRAVELLER IN BLACK, John Bruner
Martin Edwards, FAVORITE BOOKS ABOUT CRIME FICTION
Curt Evans, TWO LITTLE RICH GIRLS, Mignon Eberhart
Ed Gorman, FAKE I.D. , Jason Starr
Rick Horton, THE ADVENTURES OF RICHARD HANNAY, John Buchan
Jerry House, THE DARKLING, David Kesterton
Randy Johnson, MUSIC FOR THE DEAD, Luis Gutierrez Maluenda
George Kelley, MURDER, MAYHEM AND MISTLETOE
B.F. Lawson, MURDER BEFORE MATINS, John Reeves
Evan Lewis, SCARAMOUCHE, Rafael Sabatini
Steve Lewis, GOOD NIGHT AND GOODBYE, Timothy Harris
Margot Kinberg, VANISH, Tess Gerritsen
Rob Kitchin, KEYSTONE, Peter Lovesey
Tracy K, THE JASMINE TRADE, Denise Hamilton
Todd Mason
Neer, THE SCHIRMER INHERITANCE, Eric Ambler
J.F. Norris, THE SHOP WINDOW MURDERS, Vernon Loder
James Reasoner, SUICIDE RANCH, Ed Earl Repp
Gerard Saylor, THE OUTPOST, Jake Tapper
Kevin Tipple, TOO LATE TO DIE, Bill Crider
TomCat, A HOLE FOR SOMEONE ELSE, De Waal and Baantjer
Prashant Trikannad, WAR AGAINST THE MAFIA, Don Pendleton
Zybahn