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Take a photo of a barcode or cover
what a wild concept
do you think the people she interviewed read the book?
the ending actually hurt my soul, rip
do you think the people she interviewed read the book?
the ending actually hurt my soul, rip
"[i]t's always embarrassing to pin a tail onto thin air, nowhere near the donkey. It might be wrong, it sure looks like it is – but then again, maybe the donkey's in the wrong place, or there are two donkeys, and the tail just got there first."
I'll follow her anywhere. Her curiosity about other people and her lifelong project to connect connect connect is inspiring and instructive to me.
I'll follow her anywhere. Her curiosity about other people and her lifelong project to connect connect connect is inspiring and instructive to me.
This one was a pleasure. The premise is odd - author is struggling to complete a screenplay, procrastinating by reading a local periodical called “Pennysaver”, basically craigslist in print. She’s struck by some of the ads - offbeat stuff, or perhaps the way the stuff’s described in an offbeat way. She decides she needs to meet them, so starts answering some of the ads.
When she arrives, she comes clean with the sellers, offering to pay to interview them. That’s where this book came from. Each person who’d placed an ad which caught Miranda July’s eye telling their story.
July appears to go out of her way not to embellish or even edit what they tell her terribly much. I’m sure there are stories that didn’t make the cut, but the ones that did are interesting, quirky, and occasionally quite beautiful in a very human way.
I won’t spoil the surprise at the end, but she does complete the screenplay. Read the last story and you’ll learn how she did it.
I wish I remember how this one found me …
I wish I remember how this one found me …
funny
reflective
fast-paced
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
medium-paced
LOVED! I really enjoy little slices of regular lives like this and think she put it all together so we’ll
Miranda July had this idea that she'd call up people who had posted items for sale in the Pennysaver and offer $50 if they'd let her visit them at home, interview them, and take pictures. She turned the interviews into a book.
The people July met have two things in common--they don't use the Internet (hence the Pennysaver ads), and they are all quite interesting. The first person July meets (he's selling a leather jacket for $10) is a fellow in his late sixties who is in the process of getting a sex change. It's an auspicious start, but he won't even come close to being one of the strangest people in this book.
I enjoy July's quirky, heartfelt, and occasionally profane writing style. But she's not really a nice person. After one subject--a leopard breeder selling kittens--shows July all the animals on her homestead, gives July fresh eggs from her aviary, and offers her some homemade fruit salad to go, July stops at a nearby gas station and throws away the fruit salad. "I moved some newspaper over the bowls, because what if Beverly went to get some gas and threw something away and saw? Nothing could be worse that that." Nothing...except maybe reading about this incident in a book? While also seeing your home described as "fetid and smelly and cloyingly sweet"? It's as though using the woman as a character made her less of a real person, with real feelings, to July. Another example is July's description of a woman selling old Care Bears: "She wore a pretty dress and had the confidence but not the face of a pretty woman." Apparently July's $50 payment included the right to humiliatingly trash her looks in print.
The people July met have two things in common--they don't use the Internet (hence the Pennysaver ads), and they are all quite interesting. The first person July meets (he's selling a leather jacket for $10) is a fellow in his late sixties who is in the process of getting a sex change. It's an auspicious start, but he won't even come close to being one of the strangest people in this book.
I enjoy July's quirky, heartfelt, and occasionally profane writing style. But she's not really a nice person. After one subject--a leopard breeder selling kittens--shows July all the animals on her homestead, gives July fresh eggs from her aviary, and offers her some homemade fruit salad to go, July stops at a nearby gas station and throws away the fruit salad. "I moved some newspaper over the bowls, because what if Beverly went to get some gas and threw something away and saw? Nothing could be worse that that." Nothing...except maybe reading about this incident in a book? While also seeing your home described as "fetid and smelly and cloyingly sweet"? It's as though using the woman as a character made her less of a real person, with real feelings, to July. Another example is July's description of a woman selling old Care Bears: "She wore a pretty dress and had the confidence but not the face of a pretty woman." Apparently July's $50 payment included the right to humiliatingly trash her looks in print.
I loved the text and image portraits of the people from the Penny Savers. I got a bit tired of July's over-angst about writing the screenplay, though--too self-reflective. I wasn't completely opposed to the idea of writing about writing, but it was better done in the beginning and end. I also had different reactions to the people July met than she did. The intent seemed to be for the reader to identify with July, but my experience was more of interest in watching someone with different values.