Trip Sheets

When 28-year-old Minnesotan Cath Rahven, the heroine of this tale of a curiously delayed coming-of-age, decides to make some changes in her life, the list includes not driving a cab anymore and not sleeping with men. Her to-do list, on the other hand, includes getting serious about writing, getting a new job and (last but not least) sleeping with women. Yet her best-laid plans go awry when she is greeted on the first day of her new career as a social worker with the suicide of a client; her attempts at mystery writing are stalled by the negative criticism she imagines from her father; and the course of her new love life does not run smoothly at all as she moves from lover to lover, breaking a whole slew of eggs before making an omelet with nurse Maggie and Maggie's daughter, Trina. When Cath's father falls ill, she explores her resentment at her place in the family, and, as he lies dying, decides to break the news of her altered sexual orientation. Readers may be divided over the timing of Cath's revelation: Is this selfish indulgence, or is she right to spring this glib new ""identity"" on her dad in his last moments? What is indisputable about this debut is Hawley's ear for dialogue and her graceful restraint in these vignettes about one woman's humble efforts to reinvent herself. Author tour. (Oct.)