No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories

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They are (let me coin a phrase) July-esque, which is to say: infused with wonder at the things of the world. However, in the course of the day where reality seems as surreal as her dreams, she meets a woman who loses her dog, and she in some way becomes indirectly connected to its death. But then the story collection decides to take a turn for the worst by having stories written about incest (“I Kiss a Door”) and pedophilia (“The Boy from Lam Kien”) in such a tone as if they're perfectly normal and acceptable everyday things. You can listen to this on the New Yorker Fiction podcast - it's a gem - and it's read by David Sedaris. Or a long, laughing, rambling phone message in which every person this person has ever known is talking on a speakerphone and they are all saying,You have passed the test, it was all just a test, we were only kidding, real life is so much better than that.

The author's aptitude for convincing, monologue-like voices makes it clear that these stories are set firmly (or perhaps loosely, either way) in the mindset of each of the beautiful but often marginalised protagonists. The occasional references to popular culture, such as a television show where “couples compete at remodeling their kitchens,” are dismissive, treating the outside world as grotesque and senseless.The one that's filled with pearl buttons, and half knitted doilies, and old black and white photos with a younger version of your grandmother, and complete strangers.

It is a truth universally observed that stories in short story collections a) are mightily uneven in quality level and b) contain a few that really speak to a reader but that won't be the case with all of them. They skip past the quotidian, the merely real, to the essential, and do so with a spirit of tenderness and wonder that is wholly unique. and i guess, come to think of it, her movie was exactly like these stories except it was only an hour and a half. After that, she released two more full-length LPs, 10 Million Hours A Mile in 1997 and Binet-Simon Test in 1998, both released on Kill Rock Stars. Presenting: No One Belongs Here More Than You, a new book of short stories by Miranda July — that woman who made Me and You and Everyone We Know.She wrote, directed and starred in The Future (2011) and Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), which won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and four prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, including the Camera d'Or. They get arrested (or murdered), the children get help, and there is a general sense of 'this paedophile is a bad person, don't be like them, they affect others in bad ways' etc. Obviously the author is always a presence in some way, I mean, you're usually aware at least on some level that someone wrote what you're reading, and you notice their personality or whatever to varying degrees. I adored the narrative voice and character perspectives in many of the stories and the dialogues are superb envy enducing.