The Awakening

An artist leaves her husband and young child to drive from Los Angeles to New York City and back for work. She starts her journey with snacks and a playlist, but half an hour from home she checks into a local motel and stays for the duration of her time away. During this sojourn, the narrator reflects on her marriage, her sexuality and her obsession with Davey, a young man she encountered on the first day of her trip. At forty-five years of age she knows that she has only a small window of time left before she will no longer be considered sexy, and is consumed with concern that her erotic life will fade to oblivion and her creative life along with it. 

Miranda July's All Fours (2024) is a horny, hilarious and brave portrayal of a woman in perimenopause. Consumed with the fear her estrogen will expire before she has a chance to explore all her fantasies, our narrator seeks to pursue her sexual freedom without blowing up the family she has created. She negotiates one night a week escape from her marriage from which she can pursue her mind-rooted desires. But will this freedom help her figure out who she is and what she wants?

All Fours is one of those novels that I have recommended to many friends. There is so much fodder for discussions of aging, desire and life choices. A conversation starter, like Lisa Taddeo's Three Women (2019), this is a fantastic novel for women and will be sure to ignite debate in book clubs. It may even cause some readers to question their life choices and seek a new path for themselves.

I really enjoyed All Fours and my experience of reading it was improved by listening to July's audiobook of the story. July's narration embodies the anxiety, vulnerability and imperfection of the main character as she navigates this new phase in her life. The novel is exceptionally well written and many parts are laugh-out-loud funny. The story unfolded in an unpredictable way and I really did not want it to end.