This book was so refreshing. I've found I really enjoy books about "older" women finding themselves, it adds a layer of unexpectedness and, well, relief that you're not the only one still trying to figure out who you are. This book was honest and lovely and I definitely recommend it.

All Fours by Miranda July is a quirky, bold look at relationships and vulnerability. It’s creative and touching in parts, but some moments felt like they pushed too far and got uncomfortable. While I enjoyed the unique twists and July’s style, a few parts crossed the line from interesting to just too much. That said, it’s definitely thought-provoking and sticks with you after reading.

Miranda July is always interesting and writes with appealing and strange honesty. To read a novel where the narrator is an intelligent middle-aged woman , independent and even (gasp) sexual, is a treat. How many novels have been written where an old male professor of literature or similar has an active sex life with a younger woman – yawn. All Fours shouldn’t feel so unique but is. The narrator is supposed to go to New York for a 3 week work trip and is persuaded to drive – road trip! Instead, she only makes it to a nearby town where she spots a handsome young guy working in Hertz. She holes up in a motel for the night and then… just stays.

This quote stopped me and had me sending it to my pals in one of those glorious connection moments with the note “THIS! Exactly this” – “If birth was being thrown energetically up into the air, we aged as we rose. At the height of our ascent we were middle-aged and then we fell for the rest of our lives, the whole second half. Falling might take just as long, but it was nothing like rising. The whole time you were rising you could not imagine what came next in your particular, unique journey; you could not see around the corner. Whereas falling ended the same way for everyone.”

This is a novel about someone examining aging, being a mum, wife, creative artist, friend, taking pause to look at who they are and reconnecting with themselves. It’s also about a peri-menopausal woman having a fierce crush and exploding into their desires.

I mean, it’s bonkers and all written from a point of monied privilege: the narrator can afford to take this time for personal growth and exploration thanks to a wealthy husband and personal success in an opaque arts related field,. They can leave their child and husband for 3 weeks and then reshape their life. They can pay to have a shabby motel room redecorated in an expensive plush replica of the fanciest of hotel rooms. It’s not relatable. Her lifestyle doesn’t have to be though, it’s enough that these thrilling words are written. The ending wasn’t satisfying for me, but who cares? I love that July writes this messy, complicated, eccentric stuff. Long may she continue.

this book was truly awful the product of a perverted mind it made me feel unclean xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I definitely was very engaged by this and found lots of it funny and compelling. I don't know if I loved it quite as much as everyone else seemed to though. It's absolutely bonkers but I don't know that it was in a completely brilliant way, at least for me.

very interesting and educational concerning perimenopause but i found the main character to be very self-absorbed and minorly insufferable

passes the bechdel test but somehow manages to *feel* like it doesn't; crazy how even the main character's relationships with women feel like they're about a man

A brilliant, original, book. I found the “anecdote” totally compelling and in its unexpectedness acutely resonant: it made so much sense! The narrator’s voice was believably idiosyncratic and her “quest” was poignant, funny, riveting . An unforgettable book about character, identity and goals… I was delighted to be able to read it “blind” knowing nothing about actual argument or even author. This “road novel” (!) is tremendous, intelligent fun and Miranda July an author I’m going to follow from now on. (I’m sorry for the delay writing this review earlier as I could not write in computer due to illness. Fine now!!)

This book is a masterclass in why voice is everything. I thought it was HILARIOUS. This is my first experience of Miranda July's work but it won't be the last. ‘All Fours’ provides one of the most accurate (and painfully honest) accounts of menopause that I have ever read, and it deserves all the plaudits for this alone. Absolutely bonkers but an extremely enjoyable read!

One of the best books I’ve read in recent years. All Fours has some genuinely novel and significant things to say about gender roles and aging. It’s also riotously funny and genuinely profound.

I stayed up until the early hours reading this book three nights in a row and I've staggered out the other side, exhausted but grateful, A fiercely funny, fiercely sexual, fiercely honest and absolutely relatable novel about marriage, creativity, parenthood and middle age but way more exhilarating and fun than that makes it sound.

I’ve read many of Miranda July’s short stories in the New Yorker and always loved her sentences and the great (and very funny) was she builds her characters. This novel was wonderful - hilarious, vivid, and beautifully told.

In this riveting narrative, a forty-five-year-old artist sets out on a cross-country drive to New York City but ends up at a shabby motel just thirty minutes from home. What begins as an unexpected detour transforms into a profound exploration of mid-life, identity, and self-discovery. Far from the cliché of a conforming housewife breaking free, the narrator is a unique character whose journey is anything but conventional. The story is a wild, raunchy ride that is both poignant and meaningful. Stay engaged, as the depth and significance of the journey unfold in unexpected and impactful ways.

3.5/5.

I absolutely adored this novel (so much so I went out and bought a signed copy straight after reading) and haven't read anything quite like it before, particularly something that captures the mindset of a perimenopausal woman in this particular way. It's incredibly weird and if you haven't enjoyed July's work before in either writing or film it certainly won't convert you but it's a singular work and deserving of all the praise it's getting. Highly recommended and many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is unlike anything else I’ve read this year (recently in general, actually.) Similar vibes for me as Deborah Levy’s swimming home though the plot is nothing alike. The protagonist (an artist of some kind- I wondered if the novel is in any way autobiographical) takes a trip to New York, only doesn’t make it and instead makes over a motel room which she lives in for three weeks assisted by the wife of a younger man she has a pseudo/quasi affair with. On returning home to her husband and child (a non-binary character which on one hand I loved on the basis that the topic of gender identity was dealt with sensitively and as a non-issue but on the other hand I found frustrating because the only thing we really ever seemed to know about Sam was that they were non-binary) she can’t get Davey (younger man) out of her head. She then speaks to friends in a kind of interview having discovered she is or may be perimenopausal before becoming polyamorous and dealing with a queer break up. So, a lot happens but the plot is kind of non-existent or strange almost all the way through. This book was a kind of fever dream-come-study-on-women-in-midlife-and-their-sexuality. I think it might be a book that if you read it at the right time in your life could be transformative or enlightening. At the very least it was risqué and I’d like to discuss it with others!

4.5.

In true Miranda July style, this book is sensational.

It's funny, smart, quirky, irreverent, serious...it's all of the things and more.

A touching portrayal of human relationships, womanhood, motherhood and the ways in which we are all connected.

It's witty and intelligent and a powerful journey. Highly recommend to anyone who has ever asked themselves 'what am I doing?!'.

This book is like nothing I’ve ever read before!

When the narrator is persuaded to drive to New York from her home in L,A rather than fly, she sets off on a voyage of discover that doesn’t actually take her very far from home. Struggling with her monogamous marriage, and releasing that she is basically half-way through her life, she wonders what the future might hold if she stays conforming to the idea of being a faithful wife and mother.

It’s really hard to describe this book or explain the plot. Decorating a motel room at a cost of $20k is just the start of the unusual plot twists that this book takes, but it had me gripped. Themes of birth trauma, menopause and female friendship is just the start of the long list of things that the narrator explores. There are some steamy scenes which might make this one a tricky read on the bus, but there’s a reality and a rawness to the feelings of the narrator that we’re swept up on this journey of sexual self discovery with them.

An unusual read, but one I would recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for an honest review,

I really struggled with this book and only made it 25% through before I had to DNF it. Unfortunately it just was not for me.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

This was a wild ride. I loved the book, but I hated the MC! I guess that's the mark of a great author - that I wanted to keep on reading even though I couldn't stand her. I'd be really interested to learn more about how much was autobiographical.

I was asked to review this by NetGalley. My father has just passed away and instead of getting sad and fed up guess what I read this - totally funny feel good.

The multitalented artist Miranda July has written a fab sexy book about a woman approaching menopause.

Loved this super recommended.

Probably the least favourite book that I have read, over the last year.. Written in a very confusing way and with explicit sexual detail I decided to throw in the tail. The book is probably better suited to younger readers.