"Cactus is a novel about four women, how they affect each other, how they struggle to survive. As her daughters grow up, Bea begins to reassess her marriage, her youth, her likely future as a superfluous middle-aged, middle class woman. Ann and Dee are lesbian feminists trying, against formidable odds, to make a world in which they would be at home. Eleanor, finding herself drawn into relationships with the others, sees her painfully acquired independence...