A Place I’ve Never Been by David Leavitt

A Place I’ve Never Been

stories

David Leavitt

Conventional American tourists observe uninhibited families in Italy; a woman learns independence when the gay man who is the center of her life vacations in Europe. Other tales explore marriage, fidelity and grief. According to PW , “Leavitt writes with increased authority and range about love and loss within families and among gay and straight couples.”

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–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Leavitt’s reputation as a deeply gifted writer with a special interest in the gay experience has been established with works like the novel Equal Affections ( LJ 1/89) and the stories in Family Dancing ( LJ 8/84). A few of these new tales move beyond gay themes–‘Spouse Night,’ for instance, in which a bereaved man and woman have an affair after meeting at a support group for terminal patients and their families–but even those in which gay relationships predominate are crafted with such skill, compassion, and sensitivity that one need not have a special interest in that topic to be deeply drawn into their fictional worlds. Objective correlatives and metaphors abound: empty houses, or the death of a cat, trigger sudden epiphanies enabling characters to identify with antagonists and discern whole new patterns in their mysteriously intertwined lives. Sometimes, as in the title story, one spoken sentence can turn a concept inside out in shattering revelation. Witty and elegant without the least conscious artifice, these tales are both entertaining and profoundly moving. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/90.

– Elise Chase, Forbes Lib., Northampton, Mass.

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