Philip eventually comes out to his parents. Outside, Eliot admits to being unsure about their relationship nevertheless they return to Eliot’s, where he teaches Philip how to shave properly. Philip meets Eliot’s foster parents for dinner, then they go to a gay bar where Philip meets his old acquaintance Alex Kamarov. Later, he goes to his parents’ flat to look at Derek’s books.
Philip asks Eliot to introduce him to Derek and Geoffrey. Owen calls Alex Melchor but it’s a wrong number. Finally, he recalls going to a gay pornographic cinema when he was seventeen. Philip goes on to remember the way he would masturbate a lot and how he tried to ask girls out – and they refused. Philip and Eliot then talk about their experiences with men. 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 wake up Philip seems keen on flatmate Jerene’s research on lost languages. Owen gets back to his apartment, soaked through. He thinks back to how they met through Sally. Philip and Eliot are in bed Philip gets up to do the dishes. Owen then goes to a gay pornographic cinema, where a man leaves him his number. One Sunday she takes a walk, goes to a launderette and bumps into her husband. He says he likes to go to the East Village. Rose visits her son, who lives in a shabby neighbourhood. Philip’s admission to his parents and his father’s hidden life provoke changes that forever alter the landscape of their worlds But the real threat to this family is Philip’s father’s own struggle with his latent homosexuality – on Sunday afternoon he visits gay porn theatres.
Philip’s parents are facing their own crisis: pressure from developers and the loss of their long-time home to a housing co-operative. Philip, realizes that he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man. It is set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan. The novel is divided into four sections: “Voyages,” “Myths of Origin,” “The Crane Child,” and “Father and Son” The title comes from an article read by Jerene 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. This is his first novel (previously he’d written a collection of short stories) and deals primarily with the difficulties a young gay man, Philip Benjamin, 25, has in coming out to his parents: Rose, a copy editor and Owen, director of admissions at a private boys’ school (52 years old, married for 27) and with their subsequent reactions.
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