Rating: 
Summary: Wonderfully well written characters and story.......
Review: This book was given to me by a co-worker who believed the subject matter and story would interest me. She was right. There are so many different issues dealt with in this book ranging from the struggle for sexual identity to the struggle of sharing it with you family.....to the ups and downs of living a life that is full of oppression and worry. There are many characters here with many different backgrounds. There is Phillip, the young gay man struggling to win acceptance from his mother. Elliott who fears commitment and leaves Phillip. Owen, Phillip's father who has to come to terms with his own sexual identity after years of marriage and living his life without being true to himself. Then there is Jerene who is basically disowned because of her homosexuality which is so common in this day and age and extremely sad. NO parent should ever do this to their child!!!!! UNCONDITIONAL LOVE is key! Jerene's new girlfriend Laura.....it is just a well written story on all levels.......my only complaint was the ending. There was no real closure. Other than that, I loved it!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful. Timeless. A gay classic to be reckoned with.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. Timeless. A gay classic to be reckoned with.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good first novel
Review: While not as good as his short stories, and awkward and somewhat amateurish in a few places, this is a good, strong first novel. Ideally I would give this one a 3.5, but since that's not an option, I'll err on the side of generosity. This novel explores coming out, family dynamics, and the selfish yuppie attitudes of the 80s.
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