No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories

Most of the stories in this collection feel a lot like her film project, Me and You and Everyone We Know. She is a literary “cute brute” who sometimes manages to create clever scenes that inject a slightly humorous innocence into otherwise dire circumstances. However, at other times it feels

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immature and gratuitous. Sometimes her unrelenting authorial smile should crumble.

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I like Miranda July's style a lot. And I finally read the story that Ashley has been telling me about for years "Making Love in 2003" which is good. Something about the detached-ness of the characters though makes me feel detached and kind of hate them. Which might be what is wrong with my first

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book. Like, if the character is angry and alone, you kind of are like, "Well, bully for you, why don't you try a little harder." That's kind of how I feel about Miranda July. Except that I think she is smart and is trying to do something complex with those detached, lonely characters. It's just really hard to do.

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At its best, July's writing is beautiful, with finely wrought characters and excruciatingly honest details. At its worst, the characters begin to sound like one another, and that one person is someone you wouldn't want sitting next to you on the subway or local bus. The stronger stories ("Something

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That Needs Nothing," "The Man on the Stairs," "Birthmark" and "How to Tell Stories to Children" among others) are brilliantly heartbreaking, and far outweigh the weaker ones. Overall, this collection is probably best read one story at a time, but the stories themselves make this hard to do-- they are fast-paced and leave you wanting more.

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I was reading this book in a coffeeshop and a fashionable young man came up to me and said "it's not enough for her to be an amazing artist and a filmmaker, is it? She had to go and write that book too. It's like she has to be the best at everything." And, it's kind of true. The book is very much

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like her film- strange and whimsical, disturbing and sexy and raw.

A few of the stories just seemed to be exercises in breaking social taboos (teachers seducing students! Madeline L'Engle has needlepoint pillows that saying "making love in 2003"!), but most use July's mosiac filter to look at neediness, and longing, and the way we disappoint each other. The best story, "Something that Needs Nothing", follows two teenaged runaways, and their unequal affections. "We were kites flying in opposite directions attached to strings held by one hand."

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Miranda July is fresh, interesting, and sometimes breathtakingly truthful. She is an artist of many media, and her latest foray is into short (often very short) fiction. I had seen and absolutely adored her film Me and You and Everyone We Know, and was excited to learn she had turned her hand to

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fiction. I bought the book not long after it was released, but my partner read it first. Having shared my love of the movie, and my enthusiasm at the prospect of the book, I was surprised to hear of her decidedly lukewarm feelings towards it by the time she was finished. This put me off slightly, and explains the months that lapsed between its release and my eventual reading; though I still came at the book expecting to like it. Actually that’s not true. I came away from the book liking it. I came at the book expecting to love it. And there are parts that I do love. There are sentences, and thoughts in there that, in and of themselves, make it worth the purchase price. But all in all I found the voices too similar to be sustained across such varied situations. And I found the characters a bit too posed, a bit too damaged and cloying. We are consistently exposed to the inner thoughts of women (and one man) who are so hurt and needy and confused that it all got to be a bit much. I have no doubt that there are people like that out in the world, and it is quite likely that I am underestimating their numbers. But it feels like the whole world of this book is populated by characters who are only barely managing to live in such a big confusing world. They all felt like children in adult’s clothing. Like twelve year olds living lives far too mature for them, finding themselves struck with awe, and fright, and confusion in every situation. But they, also like children, do tend to come up with some insightful, touching, and incredibly beautiful sentiments. Like this: “People just need a little help because they are so used to not loving. It’s like scoring the clay to make another piece of clay stick to it.” Which at once manages to be simple, and poetic, and touching, and true. And this is by no means the only example. Almost every story has one of these little gems to make them all worth while.
Like any collection of stories there are hits and misses. Some of the stories are excellent (Something That Needs Nothing was my personal favourite) and others fell flat or felt underdeveloped. This book let me down only being too much of what I was looking for. By the end I felt that the characters that she had created in her film and in some of the other stories were not so interesting anymore because it seems that everyone is just like them. Instead of finding these people quirky and charming and unique, we are thrown into a world where everyone has the same idiosyncrasies and neuroses, and it just starts to feel a little less special.

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I had high hopes for this book after reading reviews, but I hated it.

I would never mistake the writing in this book to be anyone's except Miranda July.

I saw Me and You and Everyone We Know, so this book seemed to follow in the same style, only more depth and breadth. The writing style is like opening up my head and pouring the words onto my brain. By that, I mean

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there's no deciding what she means when she writes something. She's speaking directly to me.

I felt uncomfortable during some of the stories. After I finished it, I think it's a good amound of discomfort, but in the middle of it, I wasn't sure. I was also traveling via plane, so I was uncomfortable anyway.

I hope she writes more. I will read it all.

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Miranda July's funny, sad, startling collection of short stories won the Frank O'Connor in 2007. It comes with different coloured covers so that you can coordinate your copy with your clothes. I bought mine via Abebooks and got a bright green copy which clashed a bit with my wardrobe.

Often

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bordering on the bizarre, these 16 stories of lonely misfits, injured by life, aching for love and acceptance would really hurt to read, but the characters are survivors, buffered by their rich fantasy lives.

The protagonist of Shared Patio longs to write for a magazine advice column and the story is sprinkled with offbeat advice. She builds fantasies around her neighbour which she gets close to fulfilling when he has an epileptic fit on the shared patio one day.

In Swim Team a woman coaches a swimming team comprising old people in her apartment and without the aid of water (although she does provide them with bowls when they need to practice breathing exercises!)

A woman dreams of an erotic encounter with Prince William in Majesty and awake plots how she might meet him.

In The Sister A lonely man is set up on a date with a colleague's sister who never turns up, and turns out never to have existed. Perhaps it doesn't matter in the end.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but Something That Needs Nothing is a love story that broke my heart. This Person is about how we will always go on sabotaging ourselves is as perfect a short short story as they come, and you can read the whole thing here.

I wonder it everyone reading the book will find themselves reflected in this book. Do you feel as lonely, as out of sync with the world, as uncertain as July's characters?

It's frightening to admit, but I do sometimes. I really do! And if you say yes too, I think I will look at you oddly (as of course you will have to look at me). Maybe this is the great unsayable - we aren't as together as we'd like the world to think we are.

But when you look at Miranda July, who successful, young and beautiful, everything her characters are not, you wonder how the hell she channels these voices!

I feel like turning the book over and beginning it all over again. This is a collection that is staying on my writing desk to stir up my slothful own muse.

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Miranda July's great strength is her ability to maintain child-like innocence even while discussing some of the most horrific emotional violence that people can visit onto one another. If that sounds like something you'll like, then this book is for you!

Miranda July reminds me of the rapper who does the best guest spots on other people's albums, but a whole album just gets a bit repetitive. I began the collection thoroughly laughing. But the more I read, the more I felt I was laughing at, rather than with the characters which led to my feeling

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uncomfortable about the whole situation. Maybe that's the point. Either way - -she's got talent, it just gets a bit overbearing.

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Difficult to get through but for depressing content reasons only. I finally picked it back up 6 months after starting and read the rest. It left me feeling like I was 15 again, lost, confused, and demoralized by my own shortcomings. The common thread for me was that her characters are terribly

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naive and striving for something out of reach, that will forever remain out of reach. They are simply not capable of attaining that which they desire and are desperate,lonely, and delusional because of it. If you've never know what that feels like first hand, this collection may offer a glimpse.

Beautiful prose, unique perspective, but depressing!

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Nice collection of stories. There were only 2 I didn't really get into. Probably not for everyone, but I dig her work.

Miranda July is the writer/director of Me, You and Everyone We Know and as you'd perhaps expect her stories are slightly odd, slightly askew from the world and they try to reinvigorate the sense of wonder in what is seen as ordinary. There's some great ideas here, though the wistful tone sometimes

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comes over just a little bit too archly.

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A very satisfying collection of short stories. Quirky and silly, often quite touching.

Like all collections some of these stories affected me more deeply than others, but there isn't a dud amongst them and some - "Birthmark", "I Kiss a Door" and "The Man on the Stairs", are excellent.

Gorgeous, achy writing. Quirky, yearning characters. My only criticism really is that all characters have the same 'voice'.

Miranda July is a very accomplished young woman -- actress, filmmaker, zine-maker, indie goddess, DIY heroine, et cetera. I liked her movie Me And You And Everyone We Know, but now that I've read her book of stories No One Belongs Here More Than You I'm utterly floored.

If Lorrie Moore had grown up

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in a severely screwed-up family among the bohos of Portland, Oregon, she might have written these stories. July has Moore's knack of writing sentences that are hilarious upon first reading -- funny because they are true -- and poignant thereafter, sad because they are true. These tales of oddballs and misfits reaching awkwardly for meaning and solace are just stunning. They seem to drop out of a clear blue sky, oddly-shaped jewels that feel wrong in any other shape. Pardon my drool. Miranda July turns out to be my latest favorite writer.

July has said in at least one interview that writing fiction has taught her about narrative, the craft and value of it. Hooray! The weakness of Me And You And Everyone We Know was the lack of narrative drive and purpose. Some of the stories in this collection work quite well without plot, simply as mood pieces or scenes. The later tales (especially "How To Tell Stories To Children") combine July's gift for character with a newly assured control of story.

I hope July finishes her next movie quickly and gets back to the fiction-writing desk.

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I really loved this collection of short stories. Favorites included "The Sister," "Something That Needs Nothing," "Making Love in 2003, and "How to Tell Stories to Children." Ultimately, I thought the whole book was very strong though. July has an interesting insight into the subtleties of human

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nature and behavior that made these stories impossible to put down.

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shockingly odd, pathetically lonely characters making real or imagined--but usually unexpected and novel--connections with other people.

While I enjoyed some parts and thought they were simply perfect, I could hardly bare to read others, they were too much for me. Miranda July is so raw and uncomfortable at times, but reveals so much. I love her work!

Remarkably interesting author with a dynamic voice, she presents to the reader a theme of inherent loneliness and the actions that stem from such a nature. It is definitely a text that most can appreciate, although it can be awkward and somewhat absurd at points (intentionally).

There were some laugh out loud moments, but I mostly didn't like it. I thought a lot of the sex was unnecessary and didn't serve the stories very well. And I think three of the stories used the same device where someone would wait in an exact location until the person that spurned them returned. It

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was strange.

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I first learnt about Miranda online through Miss Snark’s (now expired) blog where she’d put a link to Miranda’s ingenius website marketing her new book. And now that I’ve read it, I am more in awe of the lady, for Miranda is a true genius as her stories are beautifully original, quirky and

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a learning experience in what new writing should be all about as a wannabe writer myself.

I’ve been stuck in a rut trying to write something the past few months, and the more I read, the less I seem to want to write because I feel dwarfed by the talent here in America. And yet, writers like Miranda inspire me to abandon all my inhibitions and insecurities and look within myself to want and go to a place where I can just throw away the shackles of adulthood and motherhood and perhaps even readerhood to unlock my inner muse.

No One Belongs Here More Than You is a compilation of 16 stories that are really insights into seeming ordinary lives that have been turned inside out with Miranda’s imagination and use of clever prose that makes you pause after each story and go, “Hmm…what happened there?”.

I am not a deep person but I do love a good philosophical, metaphysical ”why” and ”what if” pondering from time to time, and that is what each Miranda story is like. That some of the stories are disturbing in content (a man is given ecstacy and coerced to having sex with his male friend even when he’s not gay; a teacher having sex with her autistic student; a movie being made about an older man being in love with a child) is a factor that becomes less important as she delves into the imagined how of these scenarios, how easily these things happen, how commonly they take place, how loneliness does not discriminate, how even the most ordinary, traditional, ‘normal’ personas can make drastic turns in life with even the smallest decisions - taking a drug, sending an email, a mere phone call. That most of what happens in life needs no grand gestures, no build-ups, no elaborate staging. That some things just happen because they happen in our minds, and the rest of the world is left to wonder, “Why didn’t we see that coming?” because really, who do you know has the time or inclination to really look?

My simplest reasons for liking Miranda is she’s funny and imaginative. Sometimes it seems that she may be a little crazy but I think those are the best kind of writers, those who seem to have a controlled madness about them they can use to come up with truly original stuff you don’t get to see very often.

I await eagerly for more of Miranda’s books and her films.

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way creepier than I would have imagined it to be!