Unba//anced

no one belongs here more than you by miranda july

this is a collection of stories by july, a performance artist and filmmaker. i liked most of them - they're beyond quirky odd. they are surreal and bizarre and desperate. and i like the way she uses language. my only complaint is that they all read like they are told/written by the same person...which shouldn't be with short stories. i want to feel like these characters are telling me their stories, not the author giving me a bunch of anecdotes on behalf of them.

and there's something that bothers me about her - i've read up on her other projects, checked out her web sites - maybe it's that she seems like all flash and no substance. most of it deals with loneliness and longing. but to me she never connects with the audience in a meaningful way. it's all well and good to be observant of the human condition, and to creatively tell a story and make it slightly off-kilter, but i really don't think she's making an honest comment about the universal human condition - there's no rawness, no truth, no reality, which to me means no beauty. you can craft pretty words and sentences and stories, but if they don't have a core, then they're worth nothing.