Daddy Issues

Goldbeck (You, Again) takes an empathetic look at the struggles of adulting in this lively contemporary. Twenty-six-year old Sam Pulaski is drowning in student loan debt and living with her mother after Covid decimated her plans to pursue a PhD in art history. She often fantasizes about an alternate timeline where the pandemic never happened, in which “Sam Pulaski 1.0” is doing research in Europe and dating men named Luca. Instead, for five years, Sam’s been bartending at a kitschy bar in Columbus, Ohio, and struggling to figure out what to do next. Enter divorced dad Nick Martino and his precocious nine-year-old daughter, Kira, who move into the condo next door. Sam quickly falls for both of them. It turns out that Nick, pushing 40 and the general manager of a local Chili’s, is extremely good in bed and endearingly devoted to his daughter—but is Sam ready to settle down permanently in a life she never planned? The choice becomes even more high stakes when Sam’s mother and her nonbinary partner Perry get married and announce their plans to become digital nomads—which leaves Sam needing to figure out her life immediately. Through passionate prose, Goldbeck convincingly portrays the turbulence of the world after Covid and the paralyzing perils of indecision. Her lead characters feel raw and real, and their romance sparkles. This fires on all cylinders. (Nov.)