Book Bites: All Fours

All Fours by Miranda July
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (or 4 of 5 stars? I still honestly don't know)

All Fours begins as a masterclass in tension and release. Early sections are pure, ecstatic tension, deeply erotic and overtly sexual (albeit without any actual sex) as our unnamed narrator diverts from her road trip, diverts from her family, and begins nesting in a motel, incubating new relationships and a life. July’s writing is superlative; wry without ever being snarky, honest and raw. There are genuine laugh out loud moments. Themes abound for anyone who cares to sink their teeth into them: marriage and motherhood and inspiration and suicide and art and menopause and aging, and, and…

Where other authors often unleash their characters only to rein them back to safety and normalcy in the third act, July gives her characters freedom to be unlikable, to truly metamorphose. However. The narrative often drags, especially in its closing pages. Everything here is also built on unrecognized privilege (husband and wife are both wildly-successful and wealthy artists) that can't help but read as "spoiled." I've sat with this book for awhile now and I'm still not entirely certain if All Fours is truly good, or merely interesting.

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