A good writer can make any material sing. We hardly need another midlife crisis novel, marriage breakdown novel or sexual awakening novel, so it must be the singular ability of film-maker, artist and writer Miranda July – coming along to show everyone else how it’s done – that makes her new novel, All Fours, seem essential.
Of course, we know to expect the unexpected with July. Her previous (and debut) novel, The First Bad Man (2015), was perpetually surprising and subversive: first, funny, then strange and, finally, emotionally devastating. Her new novel manages to be a bit of all three, though less firmly divided than before. Now everyone is older and things aren’t so clear any more.
