"The Shared Patio" by Miranda July (2007 )

Official Biography

Miranda July is a filmmaker, writer, and performing artist. Her work has been presented at sites such as The Kitchen, the Guggenheim Museum, and in two Whitney Biennials. She wrote, directed, and starred in her first feature-length film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, which received a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Cam??ra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. July's short fiction has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper's, and Zoetrope, and has been heard on Public Radio. Raised in Berkeley, California, she lives in Los Angeles.  She won the Frank O'Connor prize in 2008.  She was born in Vermont in 1974.

"The Shared Patio" centers on a lonely woman and her involvement with her down stairs neighbors.  A woman moves into the top unit of a two apartment building.  The landlord tells her she shares the patio.  She begins to erotically fixate on the couple downstairs, especially the Korean husband.   She finds way to intrude in their lives.  Some of the narration seems half fantasy, some real.  The fun of the story is in trying to see the reality behind it.