Offsides

Madden-Lunsford scores some early points with her clever, quirky use of sports jargon and metaphors in her coming-of-age first novel, but ultimately the situations she explores are so familiar that burly cliches eventually sack some graceful, lively writing. Narrator Liz Donegal, the oldest daughter of a college football coach, resents her father's hard-driving ways as well as the itinerant lifestyle he imposes on his family. A narrative pattern quickly emerges: Liz lands in a new college town, struggles to make friends, edges toward various forms of self-discovery and, ultimately, becomes heartbroken when Dad switches jobs and she must move again, leaving her friends behind. Despite the inherent tedium of this structure, there are occasional flashes of humor and eloquence, most notably in the family-oriented dialogue and the characterizations of Liz's mother and father, the former once a college beauty queen and the latter a surprisingly compassionate foil despite his type-A shortcomings. Equally poignant are the sections dealing with Liz's relationship with a gay uncle, her discovery that her favorite aunt has been institutionalized without her knowledge and the obligatory but well-told first-boyfriend chapters. (Oct.)