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3 voices whose stories have not yet intersected but you can feel them getting closer, the more we learn about them, the closer we get to the moment they're going to overlap.

Incredibly raw, open account of emotionally immature, observant Nora, addicted to sex, her junkie boyfriend, who admits his desire for junk is greater than for humans. Surrounded by like minded others, theatre actors, promiscuous youth indulge themselves with each other, old ways are shed, but babies are born and must be raised. Terrifyingly realistic, as baby boomers exit the silent traditional generation into chaos

Interesting observation of a young single mother in the 70's surrounded by drug taking youth, knowing she ought not to, yet going places, doing things, being with someone where it's clear, it is not likely to lead any of them to anywhere good, least of all, the young Gracie, her small child being exposed to it all. Captures an era of youth in Australian society.

After the 3 girls hanging out in the muduc scene and the main character finding a very short fueled, almost mythic love, suddenly friendless and unsafe the story dives into a kind of hell.
Considering DNF at 57% so reread a few reviews. It feels overly laboured and long, hanging out in unsafe environments, waiting for the bad things to happen, and they do. Jamaica era still to come.

Picked up cheap ebook deal, wasn't drawn to this when it came out, but decided to get the inside view. Not all that enamoured or curious about hanging out with nuns, but let's see where this goes.
Not sure why she returns after the first visit, other ways to escape life surely?

Slow reading chapters, finally he arrives in Ithaca, but warned by Athena, will venture forth in disguise after hiding the treasure gifted to him.

Essays across three themes, voices, bodies, time. Voices bring reflections on different writers and their work, anecdotes, memories of reading them, responses to elements about them tgat ho beyond the writing, Helen Garner, Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, John McGahern, Maeve Brennan, Alice Munro, Edna O'Brien.

Bodies goes into stories of transgressions. From Tuam to #metoo to Ireland's reform on abortion...

A visit to Jamaica, festival, meanins, Book of Night Women, the patois, the precarious boatride, trying foods, beginning to make new sounds, language meaning, as soon as the sound arrives, begins yo be used, within 24hrs it is lost

The first part (Levante) - mother and daughter stay in the apt of the tourist, they buy swordfish head, read classics, Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us, he returns, a brief encounter
The Other Part (Ponente) - with an additional suitcase, an acquired driver's licence, they slip away, rent a red car, follow off-autoroute directions to grandma's friend. Daughter has acquired a Polaroid camera, mother stolen books.

Part 1: He Whare Tūpuna ~ By your Place in the World
Ancestors, family, landscape, on (not) belonging, discord between aspects of self, origin stories, our own and in the culture, mythology and creation story, paradoxes in writing and being, knowing a grandmother for 4 years, bread and butter pudding, separation from mother, inspiration of Merata

Meeting the Ancestor on the Road
Tonight Morrison acceptance of signs quote
Carl Mika, Maori philosopher, quote 'worldedness'
Place and self are inseparable, formed by each other constantly
The unknown underlies all that is known
Parallel dimensions in time
Parihaka, 5 Nov, 1881 Day of Plunder
What if?
On the genre creative nonfiction

A careful account of seeing events through the eyes and ears of a hotel and it's many guests and changing staff, that avoids a first person perspective of the author who was there reporting on events, getting to know these characters. It's a pity that missing thread isn't more present, to hold it together.

Utterly compelling read of a diminishing island of women and their children leading a downtrodden existence who are slowly awakened to their conditioning and desire to live differently when one arrives who has a rebel spirit and the ability to lead them through change towards liberation.

Life and political turning points in Kabul as learned by an international journalist, told through the lens of local employees of the Intercontinental hotel. A narrative history.