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

[Anonymous]

DNF, I couldn't get into it. It didn't help that I was listening to the audio book, which the author narrates and she is a terrible reader. The book really would have benefited from a professional narrator. I couldn't stand the author's voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DNF, I couldn't get into it. It didn't help that I was listening to the audio book, which the author narrates and she is a terrible reader. The book really would have benefited from a professional narrator. I couldn't stand the author's voice.

+1 I did not like her narration.

[Anonymous]

I thought this was one of the worst books I ever read. I never quit reading books but had to once she started redecorating her motel room. Major eye roll to when she said she and her friends trade nudes. Like WTF. It was not entertaining AT ALL. I’m baffled by the attention it’s getting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely could not get into it. I quit about 1/3 in. Disappointed.

+1

I’m not sure why people love the book so much.

[Anonymous]

Eeek. Her narration is not so good. What a shame.

[Anonymous]

I just finished it after it was on my virtual TBR pile for awhile. I mostly enjoyed it and thought it was well paced; however, I won’t be recommending it broadly, largely due to the explicitness. I did find it personally quite thought provoking, and I could relate to her sense of distance from parts of her life in the early chapters.

The contrast between how fastidious and curated she was in her daily life—how much self-imposed structure she built—and her self-perception as a journeying soul was interesting…even in her pursuit of desire and feeling free, she imposed a lot of rules and constraints on herself.

I did wonder what her financial arrangement was with her husband…they must have had at least some separate accounts if he couldn’t see where she was spending money in the early chapters. And then not actively working. Perhaps residuals from prior work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely could not get into it. I quit about 1/3 in. Disappointed.

I hated it. Quit about 20-30 pages in.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was interesting, mostly just because it was different and unexpected. I liked it similarly to Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter.

[Anonymous]

Comically horrible.

[Anonymous]

I’m curious if the people who disliked this book had seen her previous work. I thought the book was wonderfully in keeping with the other quirky, high-concept work she does. But it is a very specific style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious if the people who disliked this book had seen her previous work. I thought the book was wonderfully in keeping with the other quirky, high-concept work she does. But it is a very specific style.

OMG, I didn't look her up before this and had no idea she wrote/directed/starred in "Me, You, and Everyone We Know" the single most WTF movie I have ever seen. I am the poster who commented that All Fours gave me an ick hangover (this thread? or maybe a different one) and for that movie same, same same. For me, they are absolutely the exact same style and "feel."

It absolutely 100% tracks that the person who gave us the tampon sex scene in All Fours also gave us "back and forth forever" in Me, You, and Everyone We Know.

[Anonymous]

Friend gave me this book and I despise it. Its symbolism is so obvious, the protagonist is insufferable, the sex isn’t motivating in any way just cheap, tawdry and skanky. Attempt to give this character depth by periodically bringing in her birth trauma falls flat. Reminds me of an X-rated Eat, Pray Love.

Oddly when I started it I thought it was going to be about something really different, but I was wrong. I thought her whole adventure was going to turn out to be some kind of trauma-induced dissociative fugue but actually she was just a selfabsorbed horny chick with no respect for convention. As an artist I thought she’d have something interesting to say about convention but nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friend gave me this book and I despise it. Its symbolism is so obvious, the protagonist is insufferable, the sex isn’t motivating in any way just cheap, tawdry and skanky. Attempt to give this character depth by periodically bringing in her birth trauma falls flat. Reminds me of an X-rated Eat, Pray Love.

Oddly when I started it I thought it was going to be about something really different, but I was wrong. I thought her whole adventure was going to turn out to be some kind of trauma-induced dissociative fugue but actually she was just a selfabsorbed horny chick with no respect for convention. As an artist I thought she’d have something interesting to say about convention but nope.

You articulated how I felt about this book really well. "X-rated Eat, Pray Love" is spot on.

[Anonymous]

Just finished. Mostly didn't like it but wanted to see what would happen. Almost gave up after the hormone graph but I'm glad I kept reading to see the texts she gets about life after menopause, otherwise that graph is pretty disturbing for someone almost that age.

Was her previous great work supposed to be as an author?

[Anonymous]

I expected something much different, after reading all the hype about this book.
I too couldn't relate, nor did I find it it a compelling story. And as a 52 yr old lady in peri, I think I'm the audience.