No one belongs here more than you. - A book review.

No one belongs here more than you. Stories by Miranda July

Miranda July is a filmmaker, writer, and performing artist. My first exposure to her work was in a short film called "A Shape Called Horse" from an old Kill Rock Stars video compilation that I have on VHS, and then later when she made her first feature length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. She also just did a short film with John C. Reilly called "Am I Someone's Favorite Person?"

My first impression of the book was that it reads a little bit like a Jack Handey book. Jack Handey is the humorist responsible for "Deep Thoughts," "Fuzzy Memories," and "My Big Thick Novel," from which they read excerpts on Saturday Night Live. The one-liners were always these great surreal observations. For example, "If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." In the same way, Miranda July has a great way of describing these beautifully awkward perverted perceptions of reality. Her characters live in the world filled with all the hidden meanings and things that most people don't see. Probably, because they are not there. We call these kinds of people, crazy people. You know how watching one of Ben Stiller's romantic comedies might make you anxious because throughout the movie you know he's moments away from do something stupid, or fucking something up, like zipping his balls in his fly or setting something on fire? Well, in Miranda July's stories, you're anxious because you know her character's are a page away from doing something really weird, sad, gross, or awkward and depressing. They are really sad yet charming characters, with really awkward yet funny stories, if you can imagine that.

As I read the book, some of the elements therein began to feel strikingly familiar. It reminded me of an almost surreal experience I had as a teenager. When I was a freshman in high school, my by-all-other-measures-insignificant existence came the the specific attention of a girl in the upper class. I believe she was a senior. I didn't know a whole lot about her. I knew she was a cheerleader, and that for some reason or another she decided to take a liking to me. Apparently, it doesn't take much more than that to constitute a relationship at that age. So, just like that, we were dating, or "going out," which ironically has little to do with actually knowing one another, or dates, or going anywhere. We spoke on the phone a couple of times, and from what I remember, the conversations were brief. She was the same age as my older sister, so she knew where I lived. She decided to stop by unannounced on a Saturday morning before she went to cross country practice or something. She was directed to my bedroom where I was still sleeping. She came in and sat on the bed beside me and just watched me sleep. After she woke me, she told me she had been sitting there for 10 or 15 minutes just watching me sleep. Now, "awwwww," this might sound really sweet or romantic, but we had only been "dating" for a couple of weeks. It really creeped the shit out of me. This was the first of many things to creep me out. A couple of weeks later we broke up. So, maybe before we broke up, I might have possibly told some people, that probably knew her better than they knew me, that I thought she was a crazy person. I may have even said I was afraid of her. This is not a nice thing to say about someone you are dating, and for future reference should be considered a mistake. So, when I finally got up the gumption to break up with her, I bore witness to some of the most unnatural, almost painful contortions of reality. She very quickly managed to convince herself that I was just as upset about "breaking up" as she was, that it was for the better, that we would always be friends, and that she knew in her heart of hearts that I was not a person that was capable of having used the word "psycho" to describe her. I was. I did. Truth be told, not only did I refer to her as a "psycho," I told several people that I was afraid that if I broke up with her, she would do something crazy like Misery style, and tie me up and torture me, or sit up on the rooftop of a building at school with a sniper rifle and take out the next girl to talk to me. I really was afraid of breaking up with her. In my own flimsy defense, I was freaked out. She had already given me an incredibly annoying cutesy-wootsey nickname that I instantly hated. She used it at every opportunity, publicly and privately, and I dare not ever repeat it. She wasted no time buying Christmas gifts for me that she was absolutely sure I was going to love. It was like the first week of November for fuck's sake. I barely knew her. We only dated for about three or four weeks, two of which I feared her, and during which we didn't actually do anything together beyond briefly making out a couple of times before she walked home from school, and sharing a handful of brief phone calls. Maybe I'm a prick. Ok, I know I'm a prick, but maybe my deep seeded and irrational fear of commitment started even as far back as freshman year in high school. All I do know, is that the characters in Miranda July's stories remind me of this crazy girl and of my vividly imaginative fear of the fallout of one of my very first relationships.

All of the stories are written in the first person, and if you've seen her movie, Me and You and Everyone We Know, the style feels familiar. The people in her movie do a lot of talking like no one is listening. Many of the conversations are not so much exchanges, but alternating monologues. Like the movie, some of the subject matter in the book is shockingly perverse, but poetic at the same time. It deals with some dark, ugly, and awkward situations with acceptance and light hearted sense of humor. It's fun and sad at the same time.
Definitely a recommended read, especially if you enjoyed Me and You and Everyone We Know. There is a really charming website for the book here.

Here are some of my favorite quotes.

From How to Tell Stories to Children "Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed."

From Majesty "Get down on your knees your highness, and ask my vagina, that ugly beast." "Let me in, Let me in."

From This Person "Teachers of subjects that this person wasn't even good at are kissing this person and renouncing the very subjects they taught. Math teachers are saying that math was just a funny way of saying "I love you..."


Here's a scene from the movie.

"Fuck old People, Fuck Children, Fuck Peace"

Thank you Alexis, for letting me borrow this book, No, making me read this book.
-Sebastian