When a female artist receives an unexpected payment of twenty thousand dollars, she decides to go to New York for a week with her friends. Her husband is supportive and can handle home and their child. After he makes a comment about those who dare to try new things, she decides that rather than flying, she will drive cross country. Since she lives in California, that will extend the trip from a week to three weeks but soon it's all arranged and she departs.
But she never makes it there. Half an hour from home, she stops to get gas and makes eye contact with a man there. She goes to eat and he is there also. Seeing it as a sign, she checks into a motel, fairly seedy. She knows that the room isn't what she wants for a sexual encounter so instead of going to New York, she spends the twenty thousand turning the motel room into a luxury suite, new wall coverings, carpet, furniture, bed, towels, everything is new and luxurious. She connects with the man who is about fifteen years younger than her and the two have a two week relationship; no sex but love and total intimacy.
When she returns home, she knows things can't go back to normal. Over the next few months, she and her husband fight and reconcile, hammering out a new relationship in which each of them can be free and unconstrained by anything except their overriding obligation to provide a safe and loving home for their child.
This book gained a lot of buzz. It was a National Book Award Finalist and gained top honors at NPR, the Washington Post, Time Magazine and other publications. Miranda July is an author and filmmaker, born to parents who were both authors. The novel explores the complicated relationships we enter and what to do when our relationships no longer nurture us and support us in our own journey to live the life that best supports our dreams. It started as a series of discussions with other women by July who then combined what she was hearing from other women with what she herself was feeling as she lived her life. Who do we owe the most to, our partners who have certain expectations of us, or ourselves as we live our only life? This book is recommended for women's and literary fiction readers.