Rumors

In this novel's prologue Katharine Aurore Callahan is planning a dinner party at which she will exact revenge on two men who wronged her in the past. Regrettably, this scenario is interrupted by the body of this melodramatic book that details Callahan's life, beginning with her mother's death and her being taken in by a cold aunt and kindly uncle in Washington, D.C. At her debutante ball--an evening of ``champagne and wine, mint juleps and romance''--she meets a dashing, wealthy young man who sweeps her off her feet. So begins a host of romantic relationships and friendships in which the protagonist thinks only of herself. Although she considers herself a woman before her time, Callahan is more like a spoiled brat. In 1943 she falls in love with an American Jew. He is torn between remaining in Washington and going to Europe to help Jews escape, but her thoughts run to ``You can talk all you want about mothers and fathers and Hitler, Robert. But what about you and me?'' By the time the story circles back to the promised vendetta, Callahan's constant focus on herself and her trite thoughts and actions have erased any interest in the proceedings. First-novelist Fitzgerald is a Washington Post editor. (Sept.)