I adore Miranda July, and I think this is her best work to date. There are precious few books that are able to be laugh-out-loud funny, deeply personal, profoundly philosophical AND remarkably steamy all in the same couple of hundred pages. July has such a brilliant and original voice and her way of seeing the world is so gorgeously idiosyncratic, I wouldn't say this is a book for everyone but my book club - many of whom are writers themselves - all loved it and they are usually very tough critics.
I thoroughly enjoyed the way that the story veered so wildly off course so many times, there's a temptation a lot of writers fall into where they keep a set structure that they know works and this provides a certain amount of comfort and security for the reader. As someone who reads a lot, I love being thrown off a cliff with no idea of where the story is going next, provided the author can manage to pull it all together.
The New York Times bestselling author returns with an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel about a woman upending her life
“A frank novel about a midlife awakening, which is funnier and more boldly human than you ever quite expect….the bravery of All Fours is nothing short of riveting.”—Vogue
“A novel that presses into that tender bruise about the anxiety of aging, of what it means to have a female body that is aging, and wanting the freedom to live a fuller life…Deeply funny and achingly true.” —LA Times
I picked this up after watching Polley's film "Women Talking", which had one of the sharpest scripts I'd encountered in many years. In this memoir she tackles some incredibly difficult subject matter with a keen eye and some remarkably profound observations. These essays cover a wide range of topics including the dangers of children working in the film industry, trauma, fame, childbirth and recovering from severe injury. The prose is so clear and incisive, and her insight into the darker aspects of the film industry is truly revealing and insightful.
“A visceral and incisive collection of six propulsive personal essays.” – Vanity Fair
*A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice*Named a Most-Anticipated Book of 2022 by Entertainment Weekly, Lit Hub, and AV Club*
Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director, and actor Sarah Polley’s Run Towards the Danger explores memory and the dialogue between her past and her present
These are the most dangerous stories of my life. The ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. As these stories found echoes in my adult life, and then went another, better way…
I have a penchant for novels with horrible protagonists. I realise this can be off-putting for some people, but I think an author who provides insight into the minds of a truly repulsive character achieves something remarkable and important. Particularly, as in this case, when the character is constantly rationalising their awful behaviour.
Billy Ray Schafer is a washed-up comedian who tours around America leaving chaos and destruction in his wake. Tallent's background as a standup obviously comes into play here, Schafer's jokes are genuinely brilliant and the insight into touring life is comprehensive. His prose has a decayed, decadent beauty that reminded me somewhat of Hubert Selby Jr.'s work.
Debauched, divorced and courting death, Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian who has forgotten how to laugh. Over the course of seven spun-out days across the American Southwest, he travels from hell gig to hell gig in search of a reason to keep living. Ex-inmate, ex-husband, ex-father - stand-up comedian is the only title this thoroughly ruined man has left.
Trapped in the wreckage of his wasted career and the addictions that travel with it, Billy Ray knows the answer to the question: what happens when the opportunity doesn't come - or worse - it comes and goes?
When the man calling himself Archie Leach begins spotting his dead lover at random locations around the city, he must finally stop running and face the truth—which may not be quite as he's remembered it all these years. An American living in Australia, Archie's had so many aliases that when he wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed, he almost forgets which one he's supposed to use. With his delivery job derailed by a brief and inconvenient death, he's earned the wrath of his underworld boss, landing him an exorbitant repayment plan and the commandeering of his apartment for everything from corpse storage to Tuesday night yoga class.
While recovering from his injuries, Archie is roped into dog-sitting for his new neighbor, Nisha, and a reluctant friendship ensues. She introduces Archie to the strange world of the Orrery, a nine-story mecca of surreal hedonism whose ninth level promises to hold the answers they're both seeking. But Nisha has spun plenty of her own deceptions, as Archie realizes too late. At this rate, they may both end up dead without ever knowing who's been fooling whom.
