A week back or so, I started reading, and eventually gave up on reading a collection of short stories. It was “No One Belongs Here More Than You” by Miranda July and it had been something I was really looking forward to and really wanted to like.
Here is the list of stories contained within:
The Shared Patio
The Swim Team
Majesty
The Man on the Stairs
The Sister
This Person
It Was Romance
Something That Needs Nothing
I Kiss a Door
The Boy from Lam Kien
Making Love in 2003
Ten True Things
The Moves
Mon Plaisir
Birthmark
How to Tell Stories to Children
Ms. July gets her hands into all kind of things. She’s a film writer, director, musician, and actress, and with this book and other stories, a published writer.
I only got through one third of the book, yet half of the stories. And like I said, I wanted to like this, but just couldn’t. Her writing is very quirky and sometimes pushing into the stream of consciousness type of writing. There were times that what was being discussed by the narrator in the beginning of the story was something 180 degrees different then what is discussed in the middle. It just didn’t seem to make sense to me. I can see the arty-ness to it, and can even see why some would enjoy this story collection. But there was too much strangeness going on for me.
Miranda July
Some of the stories could have even been expanded, maybe even made them much better. Actually, “The Shared Patio” had all kinds of potential in that regard. I’m not talking about making it into a novel. But it could have easily been twice as long (probably making it 30 pages) and it could have been even better. And some of the stories seemed pointless. I got nothing out of them.
I know that my reading of this book didn’t suffer from timing. I don’t think any frame of mind could have changed my opinion of this book. I feel a strong sense of disappointment, because I had hyped it up to myself, and there may lie the problem.
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