David Leavitt is the master teller of family stories with gay characters daling openly and not so openly with their sexuality and their lives. Equal Affections is the eloquent, powerful novel of a funny, loving, tragic, and complex family whose indomitable matriarch, Louise Cooper, has had cancer for 20 years. Battling both the slow withdrawal of her husband and her concern about her children's lifestyles, Louise and her family persevere and overcome.