The Lost Language of Cranes - Characters

Characters

• Rose Benjamin, a copy editor. She likes order and cooking. She reads the New York Times and is gullible to their stories regarding AIDS. She also likes to do crosswords and acrostics.
• Owen Benjamin, a teacher. He is said to be quiet. He lives on Second Avenue with his wife Rose.
• Philip Benjamin, Rose and Owen's son, he is twenty-five years old and lives on the West Side. He works in publishing as does his mother. His voice is once compared to that of Greta Garbo. He is gay, likes to go out in the East Village and lives on his own.
• Mrs Lubin, a widow who lives in the same building as Rose and Owen.
• Arnold Selensky, a friend of Owen's. He runs a video rental business.
• Carole Schneebaum, a co-worker of Rose's.
• Bob Haber, a man Owen meets at a gay pornographic cinema. He confuses him with Alex Melchor.
• Eliot Abrams, Philip's boyfriend, who does freelance work. He then breaks up with Philip and goes to live in Paris, where he moves in with a depressed young man, Thierry.
• Brad, Philip's old friend from Columbia University. After Eliot breaks up with Philip, Brad became Philip's closer friend and later in Philip's new boyfriend.
• Derek Moulthorp, a gay man writing children's books. He brought up Eliot with his partner.
• Geoffrey Bacon, Derek's partner, who brought up Eliot with Derek.
• Sally, a friend of Philip's. She is a tax analyst.
• Jerene, Eliot's black roommate. An early bird and a workaholic. She works in a library and does research on lost languages. She grew up in Westport and was adopted by foster parents.
• Mr Samuel J. Parks, Jerene's father. He is a lawyer.
• Laura Finley, Jerene's new girlfriend. She likes to cook.
• Margaret, Jerene's mother.
• Jessica, Jerene's girlfriend at high school.
• Cornelia Patterson, a black lesbian Jerene looked up to for inspiration while in college.
• Timmy Musseo, Eliot's first boyfriend, at age eleven.
• Ben Hartley, Eliot's first real lover, at age seventeen.
• Dmitri Kamarov, Philip's first lover. He later went to MIT.
• Alex Kamarov, Dmitri's brother, gay too.
• Gerard, Philip's straight childhood friend.
• Maxon, the head of the English department at a college in New York City, who dislikes Owen's marxist psychoanalytic stance.
• Karl Mutter, an American archaeologist, in Rome.
• Rhea Mutter, Karl's wife, an archaeologist too, though specialized in Mexico and without a fellowship.
• Mira, Karl and Rhea's daughter.
• Brad Robinson, a friend of Sally's and Philip's from college, with whom he eventually sleeps.
• Rob, a young man from Columbia University, whom Philip sleeps with after his break-up with Eliot.
• Roger Bell, a co-worker of Rose's.
• Penelope, a co-worker of Rose's. Her seventeen-year-old son is gay, and she is questioning her own sexual identity.
• Darryl, Penelope's husband, whom she left after she found him in bed with three Indonesian prostitutes.
• Nick, a co-worker of Rose's, with whom she had a five-year affair seven years ago.
• Nadia, Nick's wife.
• Winston Penn, a co-worker of Owen's. Owen thinks he is gay. He lives in Hoboken. He likes to listen to Bruce Springsteen. Although he is fine with Philip's homosexuality, he has a girlfriend, though she lives in Dallas. He is also very aggressive with other drivers and likes to drive fast.
• Stan, co-worker of Owen's, who is openly gay. Winston likes him, thus niggling Owen.
• Frank, a man Owen meets in a gay bar. He is older and married like Owen, and the latter intends to see him again, as he confesses to his son in the last few pages.
• Nellie, Jerene's grandmother. She lives in an old people's home and watching soap operas is her day's highlight.