#47 How to Tell Stories to Children- Miranda July
We meet Deb in her late 30’s, she harbors an open crush on
her high school friend Tom, who himself is in a loveless, failed marriage. He
and his wife Sarah are about to have a daughter Lyon. Despite the dis-function
they stay together, and whenever Deb comes over to help with the baby, they
pass her off and fight…“They were in a wilderness that was too wild for me.”
This assistance with the baby becomes a permanent situation,
and like the divorced parents she has unofficial partial custody throughout
Lyon’s childhood. Naturally (i say sarcastically), the crush she had on Tom is transferred to Lyon:
“Now he was Lyon’s
father, and she possessed the daring, the warmth, the wicked charm I once
thought I would find in him.” Or: “I looked at him and his child, and for a
fraction of a second I cold see the spell that bound me, like a silvery spider
thread catching the light. Cast upon me long ago at an age when I longed to be
ensnared, it now spanned generations.”
It’s a very odd arraignment that doesn’t work in any
way. They are “four people alone with
all wrong feelings for each other.” The dis-function , and oddities continue
with the family therapist who seems to have no moral code (and weird thoughts
on men crying).
This is an utterly sad and depressing story about
loneliness, and wasted lives. I’m not sure exactly what should be taken from
this story except if you live a loveless life within loveless
relationships…don’t have children.
Notable Passage: “Inelegantly and without my consent, time
passed.”
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