A novel that takes you within two very contemporary, very real women... Kate Sweeney, rejected by her husband for a younger woman, has taken her pain and rage into solitude at a lakeside cabin. Lesbian Pat Thompson is renting a cabin on the same lake. She too is in the throes of an agonizing breakup. Kate’s ego is somewhat soothed by the support of her grown children, and by a male suitor. And Pat has her close lesbian friends for comfort, her parents, and her teaching career. But mostly the two women have each other, drawn together by their mutual anguish, their understanding and support for each other. Then their friendship deepens into love... Kate becomes reconciled with her brother Gordie, estranged from the family for years because of his gay lifestyle. When Gordie falls ill from AIDS, Kate learns painful truths about her world and the people closest to her. Suddenly every relationship in her life is strained to the breaking point—including her blossoming love for Pat. You will find echoes of yourself in this story—because Lifestyles, set in America’s heartland, is about the authentic family connections in us all.