No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories

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So I can enthusiastically recommend her film Me and You and Everyone we Know, and also her novel The First Bad Man. But not these short stories. They’re just too short, and also too arch, which the dictionary defines as marked by a deliberate and often forced playfulness, irony, or impudence . The stories have a frank, direct tone that makes their loopiness charming . . . July delights in revealing the unseen awkwardness of the everyday, and this collection is both resonant and complex" ( Financial Times)

July is among the finest of a growing pool of younger writers looking to chronicle the nation’s ennui. But her characters seem mostly oblivious to the problems outside their windows. The occasional references to popular culture, such as a television show where “couples compete at remodeling their kitchens,” are dismissive, treating the outside world as grotesque and senseless. John Beauchamp, Diocesan Disability Ministry Enabler for the Diocese of London, writes that “In this Last Supper the marginalised and excluded and devalued are invited to the table. Invited to be with Jesus. To sit and eat with Him. To find themselves with Him and recognise themselves in Him. To find that their embodiment is not a barrier but in fact their passport into the kingdom where all of our human diversity is redeemed and celebrated in a riot of joy and celebration.” Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people’s babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women’s self-defense nonprofit where she works. She believes they’ve been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one. Miranda July (born February 15, 1974) is a performance artist, musician, writer, actress and film director. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, after having lived for many years in Portland, Oregon. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with a high school friend called "Snarla."

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In The Shared Patio, the narrator explains that telling Vincent Chang "it's not your fault" was "really the only thing I had ever wanted to say to anyone, and be told" (pg. 7). What does she mean by this? July's inventive tales swing from laugh-out-loud funny to heart-clenchingly sad" ( Daily Telegraph) The London Buddhist Centre (LBC) in the heart of the East End teaches meditation, mindfulness, and yoga through daily classes, courses and retreats. Our aim is to help people from all walks of life lead more fulfilling lives, reach their highest potential and alleviate suffering in the world. Buddhists practice non – violence and believe our minds determine how we respond to our experience. We provide practical tools so that people can change their minds and develop greater wisdom and compassion for responding creatively to the world. The Centre offers an oasis of calm in the midst of busy urban life and is very much part of the local, diverse landscape in Tower Hamlets. Through its innovative mindfulness program, the LBC reaches out to people living with stress, pain, depression, and addiction. We also run events for families, carers, schools, and professionals as well as arts happenings. Many of our activities are by donation and teachers give their time and skills voluntarily for the benefit of others.

Despite the bleakness of their lonely lives, the adults in the stories respond to their surroundings with child-like puzzlement and wonder. One woman teaches the elderly inhabitants of her small town to swim by having them crawl across her apartment floor, their faces submerged in bowls of water. Another witnesses a neighbor having a seizure, and rather than rush for help, lays her head on his shoulder and takes a nap. Then, when she is awoken and sent to retrieve his medicine, a photograph of a whale on the refrigerator door sends her into a reverie. The woman, an amateur advice columnist, suggests depressed readers share their sorrows with a telephone operator or postman. Miranda July's is a beautiful, odd, original voice - seductive, sometimes erotic, and a little creepy too" (DAVID BYRNE) How to Tell Stories to Children", the final story in the collection, and the longest, describes the friendship between a single middle-aged woman and her married friends' daughter. "Don't underestimate how much joy an eight-year-old and an almost-forty-year-old can bring one each other." It's a complex, confident narrative, spanning a couple of decades, that brilliantly investigates the miserable plight of a childless woman who lives most passionately through her relationship with someone else's child. By the time that the child is 20, the narrator is alone and lost, her life gone, her friends elsewhere. "Inelegantly and without my consent, time passed." The UK’s first interfaith charity shop is run and staffed jointly by four religious charities chosen by Miranda July: Islamic Relief, Jewish charity Norwood, London Buddhist Centre and Spitalfields Crypt Trust. The proceeds will be shared equally between the four partners, all of who run their own charity shops. Items for sale are typical of those traditionally sold in charity shops – second – hand clothes, books, games, DVD’s, kitchen ware, toys ornaments and bric – a – brac. Prices are the same as in any charity shop.In 2006, after completing her first feature film, she went on to create another multimedia piece, Things We Don’t Understand and Definitely are Not Going To Talk About, which she performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.