Equal Affections - Softcover

Leavitt, David

3.72

802 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802135315 ISBN 13: 9780802135315

Publisher: Grove Press, 1997

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Equal Affections tells the story of the funny, loving, and tragic Cooper family. Louise, the indomitable matriarch, has had cancer for twenty years. Her son Danny, a lawyer, lives in a New Jersey suburb with his lover Walter, who is slowly growing obsessed with on-line sex; her daughter April is a lesbian activist and folk singer, who knows how to perform a do-it-yourself artificial insemination using basic kitchen utensils. As Louise battles the slow withdrawal of her husband and the ravages of her disease, and as the entire Cooper family struggles to come to terms with her illness, David Leavitt reveals the profound depth and compassion of his narrative command. "Leavitt has written from the point of view of a raging, self-dramatizing mother with clarity and with such compassion that we understand her bitterness and mourn her lost chances.” The New York Times Book Review

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From the Publisher:

The vivid and emotionally powerful story of a family in crisis. "Leavitt is able to demonstrate his . . . talent for empathy, his ability to write persuasively about highly emotional issues."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

From Library Journal:

The latest novel by the author of Family Dancing (8/84) and The Lost Language of Cranes (9/15/84) examines the complex relationships of the Cooper family. Family matriarch Louise Cooper, mother of gay siblings April and Danny, suffers one medical malady after another, while Nat, her computer scientist husband, enjoys a long-term affair on the side. As Louise's condition deteriorates, tensions mount and family members attempt to define and justify their conflicting feelings. Leavitt's plot twists and turns around various relationshipsof Nat and Lousie, Danny and his lover Walter, Louise and her polio-crippled sister Eleanorand April's decision to have a baby while maintaining her tremendous appeal as a star of women's music. A compassionate, moving work.Kevin M. Roddy, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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