Miranda July

Like a three-year Ecstasy binge ever chasing that first high, "No one belongs here more than you" by Miranda July, grips you with its clever prose comprising the opening pages, then leaves you feeling sketched and ashamed you rode it out until the end. The rest of the stories belong in the back issues of Penthouse Letters. Worn out stories about sex with inanimate objects, sex for money, sex with the same sex, sex with prepubescent children. If this be modern literature, it is a perfect example why the publishing industry is dying. Don't waste your time. There is nothing edgy, nothing brave, and certainly nothing original about this collection.… (more)

I had trouble getting comfortable in this novel. Our protagonist, Cheryl, a single woman in her mid-forties, was behaving bizarrely. Not like a true lunatic maybe, but markedly socially inept. I thought maybe she was on the autism spectrum. I could, I thought, see in her people I've personally encountered who have Aspergers, so that was a possibility. But then the other characters were acting no little bit bizarre as well, so I abandoned that idea and began thinking the whole thing was simply bonkers. The action taking place did not seem to be grounded in any reality that I'm familiar with.

I wondered if that was because I live in the South, and always have, and this is California. Not just California, but LA. Lots of "kooky" people live out there, right? Pretty sure I've heard that. Is this believable behavior for that setting? Then I had an inspiration: it's like a comedy sketch! SNL, or Kids in the Hall. You're not exactly going to expect rationality from characters in a sketch, are you now. You're going to be prepared for some zaniness.

This frame helped me make sense of the developing relationship between Cheryl and the abusive roommate foisted upon her by her employers, which otherwise made no sense whatsoever to me. I coasted along with them taking it none too seriously and figuring this book was none too memorable until, a bit more than halfway through, I found the novel losing some of that intensity of unreality - not an abandonment of it, but a definite stepping down - and gaining in emotional heft.

This latter half of the novel deals with serious stuff. How parenthood suddenly changes your life. Struggling to come to terms with your sexual identity. When to stick out a relationship, and when maybe the right thing to do for everyone is to end it. There's good stuff here, and my enjoyment of this book shot up.

A strong second half after an underwhelming first half for me, then.… (more)

Unlike Miranda's work in other media, which is often often upbeat, surreal, or almost horrific, these stories are imbued by sadness. Miranda's sensibility is very much evident, even in the relatively straightforward pieces. Almost all the stories (some are just short sketches) are about women trying to connect with someone else, although it goes without saying that they are all very different from one another. I was thinking that this book was slightly less good then some of her other work, and that maybe writing really wasn't Miranda's forte, and then a few of the longer pieces in the second half of the book really hit it out of the park.

So, amazing book, a total must-read. I say this, tho, as a Miranda July fan. Someone not familiar with her might want to see the movie before reading the book, just to have a frame of reference.… (more)