I was once again taken in by the prose of Miranda July and just submitted to what she had to offer. I remember reading, “The First Bad Man” in 2015, and being floored by what she had on offer. A tender and yet ferocious look on the nature of love, and I must say that “All Fours” doesn’t disappoint at all as well.
“All Fours” is a book about almost everything. I know that people say that about a lot of books, but it is true about this one for sure – about life, friendship, the gamut of emotions, a road-trip thrown in for good measure, and general estrangement from life and living.
There is an unnamed narrator as well who is constantly questioning life’s validity and existence – it is about a woman who upends her life one fine day, driving nowhere, trying to find herself really (or maybe not), and then the novel progresses as all novels do – with some highs and lows, and vulnerabilities, and loves, and some moments that are tender and about art, joy, and the balance of living.
The midlife crises that July writes about is real. Being in my 40s, I can safely say that I am going through a lot of them, and it isn’t easy at all. July writes with an energy that is infectious and could destroy you with emotions that range from the very sublime to the very outrageous. She has it all in her works.
All Fours is all about her falling in love – she keeps bumping into Davey, a man she eventually falls for and threads of her own life keep unravelling one after the other. For instance, about her grandmother and aunt, about her becoming a mother, and how it was for her, and the roles she had to play as a wife – all of it and more is apparent and not so.
George Saunders calls it a ‘tour de force’ on the blurb and he isn’t far from it. It has a lot of strength, character, resilience, and charm in equal measure. A definite read.
