January 16 - "It Was Romance"

“It Was Romance”
by Miranda July
No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007)

* (Eh) Realistic

Humans are different from animals in that they live their lives in the space directly in front of their face. This is the place that romance blooms. A group of women are participating in a session designed specifically to explore and ignite that missing romance in their lives, and two women find that romance in the most unexpected of places.

I have to be honest; I didn’t get this story at all. Its only saving grace was a few nice sentences.

"We could smell each other's shampoo and the laundry detergents we had chosen, and I smelled that she didn't smoke but someone she loved did, and she could feel that I was large but not genetically, not permanently, just until I found my way again."

"We had loved people we really shouldn't have loved and then married other people in order to forget our impossible loves, or we had once called out hello into the cauldron of the world and then run away before anyone could respond."

I think my problem lies in the fact that I didn’t understand the idea of the world existing directly in front of the face. Whatever symbolism or deeper understanding I - as the reader - was supposed to pull from the story, just simply didn’t exist for me. I’m sure this won’t be the last time I’m left gaping blankly at the final sentence, no idea what I’ve completed reading.