Thoughts on All Fours

Plus: Book Club Next Tuesday!

Can we talk about All Fours? I read

Miranda July

’s novel last month and it has stayed in my head ever since, in a way that’s different from any other book I’ve read recently. And while I felt a strong connection to this story, I’ve also wondered whether I’m actually supposed to be part of the target audience.

I thought this novel was so interesting, not just because of its actual story, but because of the wildly varied reactions it inspires. I know people whose novel opinions I respect a lot who said they really couldn’t get into this book. One of them told me that she gave up on All Fours and stopped reading as soon as the main character began using an interior decorator to refurbish her hotel room.

For a great discussion of many of the issues in All Fours, check out

Brooke Warner

and

Grant Faulkner

‘s podcast here. All Fours was a finalist for the National Book Award, has been reviewed and profiled in The New York Times and many other places, and was recently acquired by Starz for a TV series.

I found the whole book compelling, as Miranda July has a unique way of writing about sex and sexuality, which are areas that I’ve seen a lot of authors struggle with. I’ve heard some writers talk about how they aren’t comfortable writing about sex, especially knowing friends and family will be reading their work, but that it’s a necessary part of modern story-telling.

I have a comfort level different than most because my non-writing work involves daily frank detailed discussions of sexual activity. One of the highlights of the promotion of Final Table was a Zoom event I did with journalist and female empowerment advocate Gretchen Carlson and author Allison Leotta about the depiction of sexual misconduct in fiction.

Word choice for sex scenes is also important. Sex in fiction often uses cringe-worthy euphemisms that can’t be taken seriously. Fortunately I had my English teacher mother review the ARC for Final Table and provide edits like this:

For fictional depictions of consensual sexual experiences, there are many different approaches. Of course there’s the popular romance/escapist/fantasy method, which I don’t personally read but I can’t totally avoid because I don’t know how to make the Billionaire Cowboy ads stop appearing on my Kindle. Just from the titles and cover photos, these stories don’t strike me as highly realistic, but I suspect they’re not meant to be.

One thing I appreciated about All Fours was its depiction of sex as not all positive or all negative, and each individual sex scene in All Fours never struck me as entirely good or bad. Too often sex in fiction is either described as great or terrible. It’s more rare to read sex depicted in a more nuanced, interesting, and authentic way.

Here’s the rule I think more writers need to follow: Amazing sex in fiction is amazingly boring. Terrible sex in fiction is terribly boring. Mediocre sex in fiction is much more interesting. Serious, if you’re a writer, try it. Next time you’re writing a sex scene, make it mediocre, with real-world details of what was mediocre and why - that’s much more compelling.

With All Fours, the most interesting parts were actually not so much the sex scenes but the resulting emotional and interpersonal fallout from these encounters, and the vivid obsession with viewing sexuality as a ticking clock that’s getting rapidly and dangerously closer to midnight. The novel has led to a tremendous amount of discussion on these topics, and inspired various readers to have strong feelings about the book, positive and negative.

What’s your take on All Fours and how sexuality is depicted in fiction? I welcome all your thoughts in the comments below.

First Book Club Meeting - Next Tuesday!

Our inaugural Book Club (Zoom) meeting will be on Tuesday, April 22 at 7:30pm ET. Registration is now open here. We’ll discuss Counting Backwards by USA Today bestselling author Jacqueline Friedland, and she’ll be Zooming in to the meeting to discuss her latest book and answer your questions. You can get Counting Backwards anywhere books are sold, such as here and here.

Hope you can join us for this first meeting, even if you can’t finish the book before next Tuesday. And feel free to invite others!

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