Bookmarked: No one belongs here more than you

***Bookmarked will feature literature that I want to spotlight both old and current***


I was first introduced to writer/director Miranda July through her awesome quirky little indie film called Me and You and Everyone We Know. That filmed bowled me over with how much love it had for its characters. Not that all the characters were lovable, but like the work of Raymond Carver, you could tell the creator cared about them. July worked her way to the forefront of the film circuit with various short film work. One in particular Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?(which she wrote/starred in but did not direct) features John C. Riley as a pollster. I love that one. You can find it here.

July takes her skills as a short filmmaker and brings it to literature with her first novel, a collection of short stories called No one belongs here more than you. The book complies various shorts that she’s had published over the years, with some new ones thrown in for good measure. The collection features 16 stories all pertaining in there own way to the nature of love.

I am a huge fan of the short story format. Short stories (much like short films) are an art form onto themselves, mimicking conventional narrative while breaking all the rules. In shorts I find subtly comes much more into play due to the size restraint. This is not an exhaustive novel, it’s a place where what is not said holds as much power, and often more, as what is.

July brings here trademark skew to these various tales, especially early ones with The Swim Team, of a young woman who teaches a group of old folks how to swim in a small town without a pool by simulating swimming by putting their heads into buckets of water. Odd as that may sound, July writes all her characters with conviction, making even their creepiest imperfections palpable. In The Shared Patio she makes a woman’s need for affection so desperate that we cheer when she achieves it with her unconscious neighbor who has had an epileptic seizure in front of her. Trust me, as off putting as that sounds, it reads much better.

The collection also seems to grow as you move forward, and improve with each passing short. The standout by far is Something That Needs Nothing which features the not quite platonic love affair between two long time female friends who room in Portland. Another is I Kiss a Door about a female Rockstar’s creative flame and her relationship with her father. Also potent is the final installment How to Tell Stories to Children, of a woman that never had children but is godmother to a young girl. The story spins a beautiful relationship between the young child and her surrogate mom and is filled with the happiness and melancholy of having your little one grow up before your eyes.

Be warned though, all the shorts are frankly sexual, sometimes even to discomfort. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I was just a little stun by it. July taps into some universal feelings on the nature of love, grounding even her most outlandish settings. There’s a longing that lives within the hearts of all her characters, one they will go to great lengths to fill, sometimes with disappointment. And it is in those longing hearts that we discover something truly wonderful.