Seeing as it's only July and this will be book #20 out of 24, it's become increasingly clear that my original goal of one book every two weeks will be met, thus I'm no longer counting. To be honest, I had originally toyed with tackling 52 this year but figured that goal would be ridiculous. Clearly it wasn't. Some people have hobbies. Some people have babies. Me, I have books. Yay me.
Anyway...
No one belongs here more than you is Miranda July's (You and Me and Everyone We Know) first collection of short fiction. Like the characters in her film, each story is centered around a outcast of sorts. Many of them are insufferably lonely, all of them yearn, and most are a bit odd, but there's a quirky, endearing quality about each that makes them accessible and fundamentally likeable. Although the characters are far from normal - one woman gives swimming lessons to octogenarians in her kitchen, another another falls in love with her married neighbor while she naps on his shoulder as he's suffering from an epileptic seizure - she somehow manages to create a universal humanity in them that allows the reader to relate when she might not expect to.
The stories are funny, awkward, sad, surprising and insightful - often all at the same time. And I loved them. My favorites were "Birthmark," "This Person," "Something That Needs Nothing," and "Mon Palisir," but I've read each story at least twice and anticipate going back into them in the weeks to come. I love Miranda July. I want to be her friend, bake her cookies and watch old movies with her. Take this, the last moment from "The Shared Patio," as an example of why:
Up Next: God is Dead, by Ron Currie, Jr.
Anyway...
No one belongs here more than you is Miranda July's (You and Me and Everyone We Know) first collection of short fiction. Like the characters in her film, each story is centered around a outcast of sorts. Many of them are insufferably lonely, all of them yearn, and most are a bit odd, but there's a quirky, endearing quality about each that makes them accessible and fundamentally likeable. Although the characters are far from normal - one woman gives swimming lessons to octogenarians in her kitchen, another another falls in love with her married neighbor while she naps on his shoulder as he's suffering from an epileptic seizure - she somehow manages to create a universal humanity in them that allows the reader to relate when she might not expect to.
The stories are funny, awkward, sad, surprising and insightful - often all at the same time. And I loved them. My favorites were "Birthmark," "This Person," "Something That Needs Nothing," and "Mon Palisir," but I've read each story at least twice and anticipate going back into them in the weeks to come. I love Miranda July. I want to be her friend, bake her cookies and watch old movies with her. Take this, the last moment from "The Shared Patio," as an example of why:
Do you have doubts about your life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass on the street: that is for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.Yes.
Up Next: God is Dead, by Ron Currie, Jr.
Labels: authors F-J, books, fiction, short stories
3 Comments:
She's great. I saw her read at the New York Public Library a few weeks ago, and I also left wanting to be her friend and bake cookies for her. She was interviewed by David Byrne that night, too, and he seemed completely out of it and unprepared. Shame.
While all the reviews I've read about the Currie book seem to love it, they also seem to think that it is woefully depressing. In fact, I think entertainment weekly said something like while this book is great, avoid reading it in the summer on the beach. I think I'll wait until november.
Otherwise, it doesn't surprise me at all that David Byrne would be completely out of it and unprepared on any given occasion.
About Currie, I read the first chapter before purchasing it and actually found it to be funny albeit in a very, very dark way. I'm further along now, and can see how people would caution others that it's depressing, but I suppose that's to be expected for a book whose premise is that God is, literally, dead.
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