Squandering the Blue: StoriesThis remarkable twelve-story cycle chronicles the lives of several Los Angeles women. There are Diana Barrington, single mother and poet, and her best friend Carlotta McKay, who venture into the ruined tropic Southern California. Here they meet the men of their nightmares in crash and burn weekends they will call the best times of their lives. Later, Diana and Carlotta will travel through the desert to close down a nuclear power plant in Nevada, driving through their own personal apocalypse. There is Jessica Moore, an abused wife dreaming of escape to San Fernando Valley, away from her husband and habits and Beverly Hills, with its obscene borders of Bougainvillea and orchids. And there is Maggie Decker, who takes her insolent teenage daughter on a trip to Eastern Europe, only to find the distance between them greater than the ocean they've crossed. |
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afternoon alley Angeles Annabell apartment asks autumn Beverly Hills blue bottle bougainvillea boulevard Candace candles Carlotta McKay Christine White Christmas cigarette cocaine cold color cookies dark daughter Derek desert Diana Barrington door drink drive Erica face falling father feel Flora Frank says glass gray green hair hand Heather Ivy Haven Jessica jungle KATE BRAVERMAN Kauai Lana Colby later Laurel Sloan Lenny light Lihue live look Maggie Decker moon mother mouth never night numbers ocean Okay palms parking perhaps pink plumeria Poipu rain remember river ruins Santa Monica Bay seemed Sepulveda Boulevard sits sleep smell smiled smoking somehow standing staring Stephanie stopped suddenly sunset Sunset Boulevard Suzanne Cooper swimming Sylvia Plath tell thing thinking thought ti plants torch ginger trees vodka voice Wailua River walking watch wearing wind window woman women Yeah