I enjoyed this. Miranda July is genuinely interested in other people, even if she is a little bit more interested in herself. Who cares? This book is as much about her as about others. The premise (screenwriter [Miranda July] struggles to finish her script, seeks out ads from 'PennySaver' and visits the people who put them up) is wonderfully simple and I love how it all works out. Sometimes, I wished she would've asked more questions, but I had to remind myself that this is not a book of interviews. It's Miranda looking for a way out of a place she doesn't want to be in. Along the way, she learns a little about others & herself every time, and I actually think the last two pages are truly heartfelt and beautiful. Sometimes you come across a book at the exact right time in your life, and it's so perfect for precisely where you are in your own journey that it feels cosmically orchestrated. This of course says more about the human propensity for narrative and the mind's overriding instinct to make connections and form correlations, but regardless—I'm glad I read this right now, holed up in my own writing cave (also sadly relegated to being a den of Internet slack more often than not), unemployed, in a state where I don't really know anybody, and wrestling with the creative process/what to do with my days (and the self-imposed limitations that often encumber them). This is the sort of book that reminds you that we're all engaged in the struggle, that we're all constantly trying to figure out what to do with our bodies and our days and our strange passage through this life. And not in a "Gee, I'm glad I'm not THAT sad sack" sort of way (although there's an element of that), but more in a “Wow, we're all really vulnerable and fragile” sort of way, and we're all trying to get through, and that's okay. This could have easily been dominated by a pervasive sadness, but, while melancholy is certainly present (which is fine, and inevitable), for the most part it feels hopeful and weirdly buoyant, even with the truly tragic and disturbing profiles. This probably has a lot to do with July's interviewing style: she seems pretty unflappable, or at least good at playing her flappability close to the vest. I did occasionally find myself thinking, "Man, there are going to be some hurt feelings if/when those profiled here read this book," but she was coming from an honest place in her observations and failure to do so would have negated the whole point of the book: to find the truth she needed to finish her screenplay. Also, I guess they signed up for it, but since this seems (for the most part) like an especially vulnerable segment of the population, I did occasionally cringe. Then again, that could also be me projecting. There's stuff in here that will haunt me for years to come (especially Domingo). Also, this is totally speaking my language right now, maybe because I'm just about the age she was when she wrote this book:"Maybe I had miscalculated what was left of my life. Maybe it wasn't loose change. Or, actually, the whole thing was loose change, from start to finish—many, many little moments, each holiday, each Valentine, each year unbearably repetitive and yet somehow always new. You could never buy anything with it, you could never cash it in for something more valuable or more whole. It was just all these days, held together only by the fragile memory of one person—or, if you were lucky, two. And because of this, this lack of inherent meaning or value, it was stunning. Like the most intricate, radical piece of art, the kind of art I was always trying to make. It dared to mean nothing and so demanded everything of you" (p. 199). Grateful to have read this!
What do You think about It Chooses You (2011)?
The ending was fantastic, had to slog through a lot of "oh poor sad me" to get there....
—titan
