BookLife Review by Carol O'Day: All Fours (Miranda July, author)
Road trip, mid-life exploration, menopause, sexual identity, non-binary characters, bisexuality, Los Angeles, Monrovia, artist, dancer, polyamory.
A self-described “semi-famous artist” plans a three-week round trip driving trip from Los Angeles to New York to visit friends, recharge and celebrate her recent artistic success (the nature of her art never is identified). The artist is a forty-five year-old, bi-sexual woman, married to a heterosexual man, Harris. The couple has one non-binary child named Sam, for whom they use the pronouns they/them. Extensive plans, mapping and itinerary building are completed and the artist begins her trip.
Less than an hour into her trip, the artist exits the freeway. At a gas station, she encountered a gas station attendant, Davey, who referred her to a lunch spot and then appeared there en route to his job at a rental car agency nearby. They chat; sparks fly. Davey is familiar with the artist’s work and is himself an aspiring dancer. The plot thickens. The artist checks into a modest motel. Not only does she decide to stay, she lies to her husband and child, reporting that she is roughly on track with her planned itinerary. In a peculiar twist, the artist elects to extend her stay, hiring Davey’s wife, Claire, to entirely makeover her hotel room, an elegant room inspired by elite hotels in New York and Paris. She hands over the $20,000 artist award she had planned to use for her trip to fund the motel room renovation.
What follows is a deep and sexually explicit exploration of attraction, desire and identity. The artist and Davey meet daily, clandestinely, as Claire renovates the motel room. The protagonist continues to fabricate reports of her trip to her husband and child, sharing the truth only with her best friend. Davey vows he cannot consummate their affair, but the two share every other manner of intimacy short of intercourse. Eventually Davey performs a dance. He is a phenomenal performer, defying the artist’s expectations that he would be at best mediocre. Sexual tensions mount and the protagonist becomes very attached to her youthful secret companion.
Alas, the planned trip’s three weeks expires and after a delay or two, the artist returns home. Besotted with Davey, the artist confesses the truth about her trip, and her infatuation, to her husband. Unwilling to relinquish her crush, the couple elect to pursue polyamory in an open marriage and agree that she will return to her renovated motel room once a week.
On one return to the motel, she discovers that Davey and Claire have left town in pursuit of their own dreams. Yet, the artist continues her weekly sojourns and explores other relationships there, eventually falling in love with another female artist, all the while remaining married to Harris. Ultimately her new affair ends and she once again returns home. The resolution of the story is as unexpected as the off-ramp detour the artist took at the start.
All Fours is a rollicking, surprising, sexually explicit, vibrant and candid mid-life exploration of sexuality and identity. The protagonist is complicated, forthright and adventurous. She ultimately finds the courage to live an authentic life true to her desires and dreams, unencumbered by convention. Her liberation may not be contagious, but is at the very least refreshing and thought-provoking.
Please support BookLife: Reviews for Readers and independent booksellers by purchasing All Fours, using the Bookshop.org link below:
