Gately, the wraith, and the figurants (vi)
Father-figure-wise, Gately’s tried his best these last few sober months to fend off uninvited memories of his own grim conversations and interchanges with the M.P.
Context
A one-sentence paragraph wedged between two beats of the wraith's confession — the scene's structure in miniature: the dead father talking about his mute son on one side, Gately's "uninvited memories" of his anti-father pressing in on the other. "Fend off" concedes the memories arrive on their own schedule.