Family Dancing

This book is a wonderful collection of short stories about gay men. It is much more articulate and well-crafted that Leavitt's novel The Lost Language of Cranes: A Novel. I especially enjoyed 'Aliens', 'Danny in Transit' and 'Territory'. My favorite story in the collection was 'Dedicated', about a young woman who is drawn to, and used as a buffer, by two gay men.

David was in his early twenties when this was published. His stories capture the essence of what goes on between people, period. Counting Months, which describes the last Thanksgiving of a mother with lymphoma and her worries about her children's future is a tour-de-force!

Reading these poignant stories is like watching 15 or so different versions of American Beauty. Beneath the surface in almost every family lie illness, infidelity, betrayals and anger. This is his first collection of stories and they make for an excellent collection. I had read his later books first like The Lost Language of Cranes which I think are stronger overall, but as a first collection, these stories are revealing.Leavitt has a knack for exposing the underside of family relations. Many of his stories focus on husbands who leave their wives, but just as many focus on the effect these family disputes have on the children. Overall, these stories will leave you with a feeling of sadness -- he touches many nerves from cancer to men coming to terms with their sexuality, to abandoned sisters and brothers. I think Leavitt is a very sensitive writer with an eye for the problems that plague 20th century families.

This was a wonderful collection of beautifully written stories. It is not wonder this, Leavitt's debut, brought so much critical acclaim along with a warm welcome of Leavitt to the Literary community. Of the nine stories contained, most were wonderfuly written (Leavitt has a way with words, and when reading his writing, it is like sipping a sweet drink that goes down smooth and cool.) The most wonderful stories in this volume are "Territory," "The Lost Cottage," "Danny in Transit," "Family Dancing," "Out Here," and "Dedicated. The only stories I didn't particularly like were "Counting Months," "Aliens," and "Radiation." And of these last, even they had their good qualities. This is a wonderful book and I recommend it to anyone who love good fiction.

I like the way the point of view moves from the individual to the public one, from the smallest to the biggest.