Pop Culture Pairings: 'All Fours' by Miranda July
Just put down 'All Fours' and want to keep the vibe alive? Check out 'Fleishman is in Trouble' and 'The Forbidden Notebook.'
The book of summer 2024 was most certainly All Fours by Miranda July. And not just among former poetry club / film studies twees who marathoned Me You and Everyone We Know with I Heart Huckabees in 2004. All Fours was the notoriously offbeat July’s first mainstream hit, landing in the same book clubs that usually read Ann Patchett and Jodi Picoult. It caused such a phenomenon that the New York Times wrote a story about housewives secretly texting one another passages from the book.
Not that ‘All Fours’ is just for well-kept, middle-aged, married women. The book covers a lot more than typical heterosexual marital relationships. Instead, it explores queerness, menopause, open relationships and the fallout of a traumatic birth experience.
In All Fours, a character loosely based on July herself plans to go on a solo road trip to New York City, and barely makes it past a suburb of Los Angeles. After a flirtatious interaction with a young guy named Davey, she decides to hide in a motel room that she meticulously redecorates with the help of Davey’s wife.
There’s nothing wrong with her marriage per se, other than a sense of stiff formality that makes her nervous.
“Harris and I are more formal, like two diplomats who aren’t sure if the other one has poisoned their drink. Forever thirsty, but forever wanting the other one to take the first sip … This sort of walking on eggshells might sound stressful, but I was pretty sure we’d have the last laugh. When everyone else was sick to death of each other, we’d be just breaking through, having our honeymoon, probably in our 60’s.”
Like all July’s work, it gets weirder from there, with bathroom tiles that potentially open up parallel universes to long-awaited cameos by pop singers.
The book resonated with all types of readers, possibly because unapologetic books about sexually-charged midlife crises by women are a bit of a rarity. Meanwhile, half the genre of literary fiction concerns men doing most of the same things, albeit with more shame and secrecy, and less philosophical exploration about progesterone and memory loss. At one point, I concluded that All Fours felt a bit like a Jonathan Franzen book, from a funny woman’s perspective. (And that’s a compliment. I’m a huge Franzen fan / apologist). Beyond upending gender conventions in fiction, All Fours is radical in many ways—it explores open relationships, and it features a decidedly non-gendered child (Sam).
Whatever your take on All Fours was, you’re probably here because you want to keep that feeling going. Here are my suggestions …
Fleishman is in Trouble - This novel by Taffy Brodesser-Akner lets you in on both sides of a marriage that has already fallen apart. Toby is a doctor who, to his surprise, is treated like a failure for being a mere doctor in New York City, instead of say, a high-powered pharmaceutical sales executive. Meanwhile, his wife, Rachel, is a theater agent who discovers the equivalent of Hamilton. After splitting up, Rachel goes missing, which cracks open the story of her nervous breakdown, traumatic birth experience and Toby’s awkward entrance into the world of swipe-right dating apps.
While this book is very interesting and satisfying, it was adapted into an even better TV show on FX, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes and Lizzy Caplan. It was by far the best TV show that no one watched in 2022. If you are bored, filled with angst and want something incredible to watch, read the book, then binge the show.
The Forbidden Notebook - Born in 1911, Italian writer Alba de Céspedes was admired by Elena Ferrante, who wrote My Brilliant Friend (the NYT’s #1 book of this century). I read this shortly after All Fours, and was surprised by how similar the themes were, despite being released almost 75 years apart. The book’s protagonist, Valeria, is a working woman in post-war Italy who hopes for her grown children to land in more conventional arrangements once they settle down. After obtaining a journal, she starts documenting her life, despite the pressure to constantly hide the notebook from her husband and children. The more she writes, the more angst she explores and chances she takes.
Céspedes, the daughter of freedom fighters and the granddaughter of Cuba’s president, was imprisoned in Italy twice for anti-fascist activities. You wouldn’t know it by Valeria’s character, who is obedient and demure, but quietly incensed with how she’s brushed aside at the young age of 43. It’s a bit less of a juicy read than contemporary novels, but it’s elegant and thought provoking.
Other Tidbits
Current Show: The Perfect Couple. I recently read the book, and found the prose to be sharper than the show’s dialog, although the plot was a little thin. So far, the show is different enough that I’m not sure they’ll resolve in the same way. We’re also watching Culinary Class Wars, which pits high-end Korean chefs against emerging chefs.
Current Book: Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.
Recent Purchase: Quince’s silk robe is a nice, affordable answer to more expensive robes by Cuyana and Lunya.
Recent Fragrance: D’Annam’s Vietnamese Coffee.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Really throwing me for a loop that "Cuyana" and "Lunya" are separate brands that both sell silk robes...