I have very mixed feelings about this book.: I really enjoyed part 1 but then found it increasingly tedious. I still got the protagonist’s motivation in those first chapters but eventually the story ended up being a hot mess.

Oh deary me, where to start with this one? At least once a year, I read a book that is very difficult to rate and impossible to recommend without caveats. All Fours is that book.

Have you ever had a really weird, really sexy dream about a random stranger or person in your life and it plays out in the most bizarre but raunchy way, where you wake up and you think, holy smoke, I'm never telling anyone about that dream?! All Fours is that dream in novel format.

Our protagonist is a 45 year old artist on a sexual, midlife, menopausal safari. She's about to embark on a trip driving across America to New York for some work, leaving her husband and non-binary child Sam at home, when 30 minutes into the trip she stops at a small town, She meets a young guy working at a Herrz garage, gets the horn for him and takes a notion that she's going to redecorate the motel room where she's staying, at great expense in the style of The Bristol in Paris.

The whole plot is so utterly bizarre and implausible, hilariously funny and profound at times, and totally ridiculous at others. Some great writing is offset by a lot of kink - far too much of it to be honest - and there was one scene involving a tampon that can never be unread.

If you love writers like Jenny Offill and Olivia Laing, this is one for you. If you were grossed out and loved Children of Paradise, and you love surrealist humour, you will likely enjoy this. I was bored by about 50% and slogged my way through the rest. It rips up the heteronormative relationship playbook which should be really interesting, but the intrigue wears off pretty quickly owing to the sheer amount of preposterous naval-gazing and kink in it. Not for me overall, but I can absolutely see why others will love it. 2/5 stars

Many thanks to the author and publisher for an advance review copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a confusing read. The main character in her inability to commit (to projects and her marriage) made it incredibly hard to like.
She came across as flimsy and the part where she pays £20K to decorate a motel room??
The themes of infidelity, which then leads to an open marriage, seemed far too convenient for an easy pass for the main character.
I can honestly say that this book left me baffled!

I really tried with this one, but couldn't do it. I was annoyed by the main characters and couldn't get into the story.

Like how it started off - interesting premise, amusing, sort of quirky tone, and then it just spiralled into something that just didn't suit my literary taste. A shame because I find the author's other books far more impressive - and engaging in a more consistent way. This one just felt off to me. I like how it explore (peri)menopausal women's inner conflicts and otherwise, but it sort of lost its narrative control and flow towards the second half. Wish it was more controlled. Would probably work better as a short story collection, or at least divided into chapters - with multiple perspectives of different characters. The protagonist felt too much in her head, and her self-obsession made other characters felt unconvincing and lacking of layers, felt flat and awkward somehow - family members and lovers in particular.

I’d heard so many people raving about this book that I was desperate to read it and it did not disappoint. Funny, smart, and challenging, it’s been stuck in my head since I finished reading. In fact, I’ve been telling people it pummelled me. But gently. And positively. I loved it.

Despite being a woman in her late 20's I really enjoy stories about women of any age on the search for their identity.

It's a vulnerable and witty account that demonstrates no matter what part of life you are in there is always room for a cheeky crisis. This is definetly a marmite sort of book (you either love it or hate it). Stick with it though it's worth it.

I loved NO ONE BELONGS HERE MORE THAN YOU and Miranda July's films so I was really excited to read this, and it didn't disappoint. I read it in one day. It's funny, it's weird, it's wonderful!

I knew I was going to like this after reading the synopsis but I didn’t expect to be one so invested in the life of this woman ! As a woman of 46 this book was far too relatable in many ways , it had me laughing at times yet also had me drifting into long spells of thought about my own life and future .
The sexual references were a bit much towards the end but aside from that it’s bloody brilliant !

This was absolutely brilliant — such a moving portrayal of the idea of exploding a life in order to pursue something *more*. Fantastic.

The story of a die-hard romantic who has lost the spark through marriage and children. All Fours hinges however on a wildly privileged narrator, who spends $20k redecorating a hotel room to indulge herself in romance for a couple weeks. Perhaps the point of the book is to get lost in the romance of the impractical, but this reader did not enjoy the journey -- it was too hand-wringing and indulgent, spending far too many pages on ruminations, banal details and minute-by-minute detailing.

All Fours by Miranda July feels like a cross between a mid-life crisis narrative, a sexy fever dream, and an essential manual on the usually not discussed implications of menopause. As a 44-year-old woman, so much of what July's narrator has to say really resonated with me -- the nuances about the intersections of power and love and hope and despair of marriage and family life chief among them. I am grateful to this book for digging deeply into the experiences of women at midlife, and for speaking candidly about both the practical aspects of the changes it produces, as well as philosophising about how that change can be transformative and beautiful. The novel began to lose me about 3/4 of the way through, where I became, frankly, a little bit bored of all the lesbian sex, but it also won me back at the end, where the final, climactic moments - in their joyous mix of earnestness and absurdity - brought tears to my eyes along with the narrator. A strange, beautiful, imperfect book that I was surprised to like as much as I did.

I read this on holiday and needed to sit with it for a while before being able to write this review. This book was completely different to how I expected, but in the best way possible. I've been thinking about it at least once a day since I finished it 2 weeks ago. Something about it really got under my skin.
Sad, funny, insightful, tragic, sexy.... It was refreshing to read something so explicit but from the perspective of a woman reaching menopause and still trying to figure her life out.
Really enjoyed it and will be recommending to everyone in my life.

"Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectations while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman."

This is not your typical romance novel - the main character is 45 for a start. She has many facets and throughout the book takes the reader through a whirlwind of highs and lows, At times her experiences are uncomfortable to read and I cried, nodded and squirmed with embarrassment in almost equal measure. But I couldn't put it down. The writing is gritty, raw and unapologetic - a breath of fresh air.

With thanks to #netgalley and #Canongate

Fantastic read one to recommend and will stay with me for a long time. That drive cross-country from LA to NY is one I loved reading about and will endeavor to do one day!

I came to All Fours not knowing what to expect. It is very physical, raunchy and quite shocking in parts, but overall it is a very good read indeed, and the author certainly knows how to write sizzling prose that wrong-foots the reader at every turn.
A woman comes into a little windfall, and decides to drive across country, alone, to New York. Her husband helps her plan her route, and stays behind with their small child. But after she sets off, about half an hour from her home, she stops in a small town and almost against her will, checks into a somewhat rundown motel. She is as surprised by her actions as the reader, and things become ever stranger as she begins a passionate but unconsummated affair with a younger man she meets by chance. All the while, she checks in with her family, who believe her to be well on her way towards the east coast.
This is one of the most thought provoking books I have read for quite a while. I found the relentless sexual references a little tiresome, but of course they are what the book hangs on: this is a woman in her forties, searching for something elusive and trying to find meaning in her life, as she becomes 'invisible' even to herself.
Definitely recommended.

“Everyone thinks doggy style is so vulnerable,” Jordi said, “but it’s actually the most stable position. Like a table. It’s hard to be knocked down when you’re on all fours.”

—

A few years before he died, the critic and philosopher Roland Barthes became almost obsessed with the concept of ‘vita nova’, a latin term that translates to mean ‘the new life’. He dedicated time in his lectures to wondering if such a thing was possible, and whether he might be able to find a new life somehow. In his diary, he wondered if ‘vita nova’ could only be achieved after the death of a loved one, given that the concept, for Barthes, became closely associated with the idea of a ‘radical break’ from how one had been living, meaning it required leaving behind all previous connections behind in order to achieve it.

The narrator of Miranda July’s second novel might well relate to that idea. A semi-successful artist that feels stuck, in need of something to revitalise her, when she finds herself staying at a motel 30-minutes from home and a young man working at a car rental store ignites something in her. His introduction into her life brings with it a complex desire, and a reckoning with her own dwindling sexuality. It forms the beginning of a radical break from conformity and a shift away from expectations.

All Fours is story sexual obsession, and confusion. One that is entirely unpredictable and, at times, enraging. It is a bold swing and a lot of it works, but, I also feel somewhat disconnected from it at times, particularly during its middle section. I found its world harder to slip into that I did July’s wonderfully weird debut or her short stories. On paper, this is the kind of thing I would fall head over heels fore, and it had moments that I really adored the beginning and the end, sections about feeling lost or unsure, which really moved me, but something kept me at arms length in the middle, never allowing me to totally give myself over to it.

Raw, at times funny, at times heart-felt - but at all times totally and utterly compelling,

This is Miranda July's second book, i missed the first - am off to search for it now!

I really enjoyed this novel - one that, to me, is in two parts, but also this is a book that deals with very different issues.

The female narrator and protagonist is an unnamed artist. She plans to drive cross country from LA to New York, leaving her husband, Harris, and child ('they'), Sam, at home. However, when she gets to the outskirts of LA, she finds a motel and decides to stay there for the two weeks she is going to be away, living a lie to herself and her family.

In Monrovia, at the motel, the narrator finds an interior decorator, Claire, who agrees to completely change the room - it is somewhat implausible why this would be permitted but it does and the narrator is very pleased. She sets up home, pretending to her husband and child she is stopping off at different places en route to New York. Then, she falls for Davey, Claire's partner, who works at the Hertz car rental office.

Clearly, the narrator is having a difficult time. She isn't having sex with Harris - but wants it with Davey (who doesn't reciprocate). She becomes quite obsessed with him, learns about his past, and is devastated when she has to return to her family. What happens next is quite soul-destroying for her - she starts sleeping with women and her husband has a girlfriend, Paige. They embrace an unconventional lifestyle, grow further apart. All the while it is never clear why the narrator is quite well-known. She is an artist but it's quite vague what she has done to be famous.

Miranda July has written a book which, predominantly, is about a woman's quest to find some meaning in her life; particularly prevalent is the perimenopause and for this reason, I believe women, specifically, will find her story extremely compelling and well-written. There is humour throughout - and the story is bitter-sweet, too.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This is an interesting read, I really struggled with the first part and almost gave up but I enjoyed parts 2 & 3 much better. I liked the female friendship aspect of the story but really failed to warm or like the main character who seemed selfish and self absorbed. The sexual content didn’t add any value to the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read All Fours.