Perhaps my favorite in the humorous vein is a stream-of-consciousness fragment called "Ginny Dias/Still Has To Go Dry Cleaners, Bank and Gas Station." It sums up the minds of three-quarters of the distracted-looking women you glimpse through the car window during rush hour: She's reciting a shopping list she hasn't had time to write down, chanting it like a jumbled mantra, recalling a new item, and forgetting another, at every line. And in the end: "AHHHHHHHH! Ne'mind already!" Funny, but also astute in the way it summarizes the moment and implies, without saying it, how fragmented and over-busy our lives have become. In this way, Cataluna keeps the social commentary right where it should be in an artistic work: implied, understated, open to interpretation.

I loved the wordplay in two pieces that perfectly characterize what happens when people try to talk or write above their heads: John "Johnny" "John-Boy" Monrovia protesting his innocence in court ("I never was in possessions of one torch welder and the torch welder I had before was stolen away before the incident in question of which I facing charges...") and the other Officer Wolverton Kahaunaele, writing a report on a bust gone bad ("Maximum speed during said pursuit did not exceed maximum speed mandated minimum ... ").

But not all is joy and light here. Some voices bear a certain triste, a sad and wistful tone — as in the woman who realizes that Longs, Foodland and Zippy's are pretty much her life. There is an elderly woman's diatribe about the assumption that someone is wise just because they're old: "I got married. I had kids. I watched TV. That's it." There's the disillusioned Longs stock clerk who had big plans but is still hefting boxes after 13 years.

Give this book to someone who doesn't consider themselves a reader or a playgoer: They will see themselves, and contemporary Hawai'i in it, and realize how powerful voice can be.

Free readings:

• 7 p.m. reception, 7:30 p.m. March 30, University of Hawai'i- Manoa Art Auditorium, co-sponsored by UH-Manoa English Department and Bamboo Ridge.

• 3 p.m. April 9, Native Books-Na Mea Hawai'i, Ward Warehouse