Death and dying--Fiction

In this novel of first person present tense , a family of women responds to death in techniques of memento mori and carpe diem. Whether living for a cause or without one, their journeys cover three continents and five islands where geography is metaphor for the violence, wanderlust, power, love, and need to create that drives thems as they interrogate the controlled demolition of their world, answering it with a return to nomadic lifestyles. Celia is an escape artist, satirizing the world as she wanders through it, putter her own perspective stamp and slant on things, while Taylor wants to be president but leaves mainstream for the slipstream of trauma. Elaine is a cornucopia of inputs, energies, and charges fired up all at once, while Ruth paces her longevity in the flatness of the new world. At the hidden center, Noni attempts to reincarnate herself without dying.