miranda july

Props to the multi-talented Miranda July, who recently won the 2007 Frank O'Connor award for short stories for her first collection of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You - beating out such Big Muscle names as Alice Munro.

If you haven't seen the book's website yet, you must check it out. Forget Web 2.0, the stovetop is the REAL future of the internet.



I recently read No One Belongs Here More Than You and was expecting to fall into Serious Crush with it, the way I did with Miranda's movie, Me and You and Everyone We Know. Like the movie, the book was all about strange, quirky things people do, and the stranger, quirkier things they think and feel - none of which are really so strange and quirky, because the strange and quirky are actually fascinating and beautiful. Where MAYAEWK (the movie) differs from NOBHMTY (the book), however, is that the movie seems to wonder and marvel at life, and ultimately makes you feel intrigued and hopeful, whereas the book made me feel quite down and depressed. I don't need a happy ending, necessarily, but did feel that, for the most part, the stories were united by a theme of hopelessness and futilty.... which I'd say is the exact opposite of what the movie does. Hrmph. Did anyone else out there read NOBHMTY? What did you think?

Miranda July is also asked "HDYGTFAJ?" (or "How Did You Get That F*&%ing Awesome Job?") by ReadyMade, in this month's issue of the magazine.