Can we please talk about All Fours, by Miranda July?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good premise - a middle aged woman taking a break from her life - but would have been so much more relatable if she were 1) a harried mom with a job that anyone could have, not some nebulous job that is never made clear, and 2) actually had sex with the hot younger guy and not an old woman!

3) did not have a ungendered child or at the very least explained whether the the kid was supposed to be trans or if they were performing a social experiment there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good premise - a middle aged woman taking a break from her life - but would have been so much more relatable if she were 1) a harried mom with a job that anyone could have, not some nebulous job that is never made clear, and 2) actually had sex with the hot younger guy and not an old woman!

3) did not have a ungendered child or at the very least explained whether the the kid was supposed to be trans or if they were performing a social experiment there.

Agreed. It was a pointless distraction

[Anonymous]

Ok well I’ll say I loved it. I’ve never been closer and farther away from a protagonist and where those lines were was so interesting to me. So much resonated the book is fully underlined and in fact helped me tell my husband I’m bisexual. However so much of it was a lot to handle and the end chapter lost the grip on me.

[Anonymous]

It was a DNF for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved the first few chapters and then by the end I felt suffocated and strangled in that overdone hotel room and couldn’t wait to end the book. Think I was looking for something more relatable and less over the top.

YES. I needed to leave the motel. It began to feel stagnant. She wasn’t moving forward. The clarity didn’t come. I only half heartedly read the last few chapters and could no longer engage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good premise - a middle aged woman taking a break from her life - but would have been so much more relatable if she were 1) a harried mom with a job that anyone could have, not some nebulous job that is never made clear, and 2) actually had sex with the hot younger guy and not an old woman!

3) did not have a ungendered child or at the very least explained whether the the kid was supposed to be trans or if they were performing a social experiment there.

Agreed. It was a pointless distraction

She told someone - I think Arkanda - that her kid was nonbinary when they had the traumatic birth conversation.

[Anonymous]

I thought the writing was great. The protagonist was annoying in a lot of ways, and making the kid nonbinary was distracting and unnecessary, unless the goal was to make the parents seem pretentious.

[Anonymous]

Read the first half today. It’s been years, maybe decades, since I devoured a book like this.

[Anonymous]

It propelled me forward but I hated it at the same time. The artistic life, nonbinary child (the defensiveness with Davey’s mom), bathing with the too old to be bathed with child, the weird fantasies let alone all those sex scenes… it was just ? I think it makes all these lists because it’s like you’re supposed to be hip and accepting and find it revelatory so reviewers go along with that, but the story and protagonist are all too much.

[Anonymous]

Well put!

[Anonymous]

Some enjoyable parts, but overall it became a hate read for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good premise - a middle aged woman taking a break from her life - but would have been so much more relatable if she were 1) a harried mom with a job that anyone could have, not some nebulous job that is never made clear, and 2) actually had sex with the hot younger guy and not an old woman!

3) did not have a ungendered child or at the very least explained whether the the kid was supposed to be trans or if they were performing a social experiment there.

Agreed. It was a pointless distraction

She told someone - I think Arkanda - that her kid was nonbinary when they had the traumatic birth conversation.

Yes, near the very end of the book though she alludes earlier that Sam will also soon need estrogen. But the Sam relationship was just over the top. And she snaps at the woman who asks if she has a son saying her child will not be gendered, which did seem more political than sincere.

[Anonymous]

I loved it, but I read it when it first came out before all the accolades, so I had no expectation of the book.

I found it really funny and it was unlike anything else I've read! I have been feeling old, unattractive and other things the narrator talked about, and it felt cathartic to have the narrator just go crazy and over the top with it (so I don't have to )

I am a boring suburban soccer mom - the weird sex stuff and her "lifestyle" change at the end did not bother me because I don't need people in my book to act like me.

[Anonymous]

I rarely quit reading a book before the end. I also stopped at she started redecorating the hotel room.

[Anonymous]

I just finished this. I think it is on lists and getting buzz because she called attention to female midlife and perimenopause. However, the narrator is un-self aware, frivolous and completely selfish. So, it ultimately does nothing to help cast introspection on my own midlife because she is not relatable whatsoever.

I do think we all are vulnerable to a mid-life WTF moment. But I think it’s shallow to imply that a sexual renaissance is the fix. Sex is not going to answer your existential questions and make your life make sense.

I don’t think I’d recommend this book because it didn’t meet two of my most important criteria: it didn’t leave me wanting to spend more time with the character(s) — it did the opposite — and it didn’t change the way I think or feel about anything.

That said I’m happy for the PPs who found it impactful because it does touch on an underserved topic. I just don’t think this should be the definitive tome for peri women