I picked up No One Belongs Here More Than You
by Miranda July because it had a cool cover, it was desperately on sale, and I'd read some great reviews of it. I went through my bookshelves and this is actually the only short story collection I own now, and it's possibly the only short story collection I've ever read. That being said, it usually takes me quite awhile to get through collections, but I gobbled up Miranda July's stories in just a few days. And it seems like this collection is everywhere! A few weeks ago I did a post about my favorite book covers, and someone commented saying they loved the cover of this collection. About a week ago I posted the books I read in July (including this one) and two people got in a conversation about Miranda July's artwork. It seems like this collection has become a part of my generation's cultural footprint, and I can understand why, because the stories in this collection speak to me in a very generational manner.
I always find collections difficult to review and therefore usually avoid doing reviews of them at all, but this didn't really even seem like a short story collection to me. It just seemed like a series of stories about humans changing, not changing, failing, and learning. The first story that really caught my attention was the third, Majesty, with it's beautiful one liners, "We come from long lines of people destined to never meet" and "That day I carried the dream around like a full glass of water, moving gracefully so I would not lose any of it." Miranda July as this amazing way of staggering her phrasing and then tucking a little gem, golden sentence in the middle of everything. This makes the stories easy to read and also a bit of a treasure hunt.
My only complaint with these stories is that towards the end she seemed to lose a bit of momentum. There were a few stories in a row where I was just not intrigued and I felt like she was relying too much on sexual intrigue to make her plots move forward. I can see that that was a theme in this collection, but it was just a little too much all at once for me. I felt like she should pick a different method. Overall though I found the collection enjoyable, funny, and sad, so I am giving it a B.
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