Book Review: No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July ****1/2

I've recently finished reading Miranda July's new book, 'No One Belongs Here More Than You.' If you aren't familiar with July she's a performance artist/filmmaker/author. She is one of the rare artists who is published and seen in many mediums, the kind you want to hate because they are doing so much. Though, unlike artists such as Nick Cave or Kevin Bacon, she is continuously successful at everything. 'No One Belongs Here More Than You' is not an exception. 



For July fans:

Her book floats. It's in another world. Not in the way that Judy Budnitz's 'Flying Leap' is only marginally grounded in reality (though not to its disadvantage) 'No One Belongs...' creates its own reality. If you try to place a finger on what its 'otherness' exactly is you won't find it. It is real, very grounded, but very distant. For any July fan the book is an tenacious lover that demands to be reread, it's her typical, overly-poignant, non-sequitor-esque dialogue. The stories wear bright colors (like the two pink or yellow covers available for the book) they leap in your face and sit on your tongue.



For everyone else:

The book is fresh and intriguing, she may very-well be one of the new voices of the American short story for the 21st century. It is a solid debut collection. Not perfect, solid. Stories like 'The Shared Patio,' and 'The Swim Team' are some of the best short story writing I've seen from any author in the last few years. The tone she has refined (or maybe the tone she was born with, either way, the tone that George Saunders has coined as July-esque) is omnipresent. It leaves you wondering if she is relentlessly, hopelessly optimistic in the face of the horrors of the every-day, or if the characters in her stories are so riddled with pain that they have adopted this tone, refusing to accept that the world is as bleak as it appears.


Read this book. If you have ever been intrigued by Judy Budnitz, Don DeLillo, Nick Flynn, Dave Eggers or need a good view of a harsh world through eyes that only see beauty you need this book as badly as the American short story needs someone of July’s varied talents