A series of vignettes make up this novel about a young woman involved in an automobile accident one afternoon on a desolate stretch of highway somewhere in the San Joaquin Valley. Ejected from the car upon impact, she lands on the gravel shoulder right alongside the debris stream of papers, bottles, and fast food wrappers. She finds herself in and out of consciousness and through a sequence of flash backs; moments from her life occupy her thoughts as she struggles to understand what has just happened to her. Broken dreams and disappointments scatter themselves across her mental landscape as family, friends, and strangers are all recalled in a myriad of settings and situations involved. Confused and often alone in her memories, she attempts to navigate and understand an environment she is not fully capable of doing. All her life, she seeks to belong but always finds herself in a different space, perhaps a no space of sorts while those around her go through the repetitions of daily life. Never taken into account, never considered, and never celebrated; she questions where she belongs in the world and in the end she realizes that she never really belonged anywhere at all.
29 parts