On "The Shared Patio" by Miranda July (3076 words) ****

No one I know writes quite like Miranda July. That is a good thing--for Miranda July and for her readers. I mean, would she be quite the fun writer she is if 582 other people wrote exactly like her? Not likely. Fun writers are fun because they are unique, which means that even if there are 582 other writers exactly like her, we don't know about them, and so we love Miranda July.

In "The Shared Patio," we get the tale of a lonely woman who dreams of an affair with her thoroughly average narrator. Possibly this woman has HIV. Certainly, she works for a company that prints a brochure on HIV, and she tries to have positive thoughts about everything in her world, even though she's a complete social misfit. But she shares a patio. We all share patios. Even if we don't belong on them. We share them. Everything is good. Because of patios, which we share. We, the patio users. See what I mean. Read the story here at Zoetrope.

On "This Person" by Miranda July (1049 words) *****

I first came across Miranda July when a friend of mine recommended her movie You and Me and Everyone We Know. It took me about a year to get around to seeing it--as many such suggestions take time to get around to--but once I did, I certainly enjoyed it, as she noted I would. It was quirky in a rather friendly sort of way--and yet it was also kind of disturbing. Disturbing yet reassuring. Those two don't usually go together. I heard about her forthcoming book a short while after that and was quite interested but never got around to buying it. One day, in a fit of sudden Miranda July interest inspiration, I searched for said book on the Net. Somehow, I ended up at the Library of Congress, where one of the stories from her collection No One Belongs Here More Than You is actually posted with the information. I read it, loved it, and quickly--well, within a year--rushed out and bought the book (let's say it quickly went on my list, and then when I had money, I purchased it). I loved the book, much as I loved the story. The collection is uneven, like most--high flying in places, a bit disappointing in others--but great reading all the same.

As for this story, it's one of my favorites in that collection. I love how July is able to capture the incredible weight that a social occasion or party can pose to someone. The use of "someone," "somebody," and "this person" as the protagonist makes the character into an everyman (or -woman--the character has breasts), but it also makes the story seem rather nonsensical and flirty--the way you might hear some parent say something like, "Someone has a birthday today" (as if you--the birthday girl/boy--don't know). And that's what makes the story so funny and powerful. The lengths to which "someone" gets used--someone gets to have a party or someone gets to go blind or . . . Just read the story, and then buy the book.