Conflict between mother and daughter is a staple of fiction today. But conflict between father and daughter—the core of Fitzpatrick's absorbing if long-winded first novel (after the story collection Where We Lived)—is less frequently dissected and certainly not with the sharpness Fitzpatrick brings to the project. Her narrator and protagonist, Catherine Kelly, is putting herself through Boston University by working as a cocktail waitress. Wary of men because her father left her when she was a child, she shares an apartment with the only man she can get close to, an adoring and adorably fey gay man. The year she turns 20, Catherine takes a summer internship in Madrid. The job is negligible, but her roommates are charming, introducing Catherine to their circle of friends, who sweep her up into Madrid's nightlife. But halfway through her stay, her father shows up, and in the week he visits, Catherine begins to know, and to confront, him. Fitzpatrick ably weaves scenes from Catherine's past through those set in Madrid, building suspense in a story that could have become a travel journal. With incisive description and biting, lively dialogue, Fitzpatrick nails her characters, especially the men in Catherine's life. Both Harlan, the gay man Fitzpatrick rescues from stereotype, and Catherine's father, with his toupee and Aqua Net, are unforgettable. Moreover, Fitzpatrick captures precisely the peculiarities of bar life, while never veering far from her themes: how men value women and how Catherine values men. Fitzpatrick does go on, however: too many bars and far too many headlong sentences explaining Catherine's thoughts. As a witness and narrator, though, Catherine is completely credible, which is why the reader keeps reading and cheering her on. Agent, Wendy Weil. (Aug. 2)
