Mary Miller (8)

Louis is on the way to the drug store to pick up his diabetes medicine when he sees a sign saying "FREE DOGS" taped to a mailbox and stops to see what the deal is. Then he's on his way home, in the company of a dog named Layla, who "...didn't look particularly smart of energetic or interested in me. In other words, she wasn't anything you might want in a dog." And so begins the story of Louis, a 63 year-old divorcé, who took early retirement on the expectation of a windfall from his show more deceased father's estate, although the lawyer is no longer returning his calls. He mainly sits in his chair, drinking and watching Naked and Afraid. Can a dog change a life, even one as lackluster and prone to gagging as Layla?

This is a novel that relies on the voice of the main character and narrator. Miller's writing is wonderful and she makes what could be a somewhat treacly story a delight to read, rooted in a specific place and full of grit and hope. show less

A collection of pitch-perfect stories about women seeking and rejecting love, fittingly dedicated to Miller’s “exes.” They are as lost and confused as everyone else (more so in some cases) and aren’t afraid to admit it, at least in short bursts. They are at once self-aware, vulnerable, intelligent and observant. Some end with a devastating revelation that puts the entire story in perspective.

Some favorite sentences:
“Other women may do their best to be nice and accommodating but I show more try to be as unlikeable as possible, test men too soon.”

“When he gets home, I want to go somewhere, the drive-in maybe, but he wants me to handcuff him to the bed.”

“I had a boyfriend but couldn’t stop myself from wanting others. It was a pattern.”

The stories are filled with magical, subversive sentences. This one can serve to sum up this collection:
“I guessed the one thing I couldn’t understand about life was why no one seemed to be with the person they loved most in the world.” show less

The women, and a couple of girls, in the stories of Big World have love-dislike relationships with men. They need men, use them when necessary, and are often treated poorly in return. One sleeping with a restaurant owner: “The waitresses don’t talk to me for reasons having to do with I fuck everybody and get paid twelve dollars an hour to slice lemons.”

One woman’s idea of getting-to-know-you: “I can tell he wants me to ask him questions about this former life, so I ask if he ever show more cheated on his wife with a hooker.”

Like many great writers, Miller produces sentences of crystallized perfection. A husband is brutally summarized in one sentence: “He had a handful of phrases like this that made up his entire personality.”

Women don’t have it easy in Big World and the men don’t make it any easier. A woman’s relationship with her ex-husband in the title story sums up the theme of this collection in one devastating sentence: “I liked to say things to shock him, the truth. Like my father, he had sent me out into the big world all alone and I was going to show him how ugly it was.” show less

This book has been more than adequately reviewed so I won’t repeat all of the excellent summaries.

Mary Miller has a great eye for detail and she is a great observer of behavior. On almost every page there are scenes which resonate.

I “reopened” my Kindle at a random spot to test my hypothesis. At the 38% mark I found this:

“Elise and I went to the bathroom. There was a line bunched up in the small space, and I kept having to move because I was blocking the hand dryer. A mother had show more her little girl in the handicapped stall, coaching her in a high voice, “Now wipe, now pull up your panties, now your pants, are they zipped? They’re not zipped. No, you can do it yourself – you’re a big girl now.” Somehow it felt like was all for our benefit.”

Miller sees things that we all see, but some of us don’t pay attention. Mary Miller pays attention. This is excellent work. show less