Forum From the Archives: Miranda July Wrestles with the Female Midlife Crisis in ‘All Fours’

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4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Miranda July’s new novel, “All Fours,” a 45-year-old artist embarks on a solo roadtrip to New York from her Los Angeles home. She makes it as far as Monrovia, a small town a half-hour from L.A., and waits out the rest of her trip in a motel room while pursuing an infatuation with a Hertz rental car employee. The novel, which shares similarities with July’s own life, explores themes of marital ennui, the fear of sexual irrelevance and the contours of the female midlife crisis. July grew up in Oakland and is known for her performance art, her films “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and “Kajillionaire,” and her fiction “No One Belongs Here More Than You” and “The First Bad Man.” We listen back to our May conversation with July about her new novel and why she describes it as “closer to the bone.” Guests: Miranda July, actor, screenwriter, director and author - She’s known for her films “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and “Kajillionaire,” and her fiction includes “No One Belongs Here More Than You” and “The First Bad Man”. Her new novel is "All Fours" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, forum listeners. It's Alexis. Did you hear that forum is launching a video podcast? It is true.
0:07.0	Each week we'll drop a video recording of a recent forum episode on the KQED News YouTube channel.
0:14.0	We can't wait to bring you into the studio for our conversations on Bay Area Culture, California News, and beyond.
0:21.2	Our first few episodes are out now. Just visit YouTube.com slash KQED News to see it all.
0:28.0	That's YouTube.com slash KQED News.
0:32.1	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:39.9	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:46.2	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:51.9	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
1:00.0	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:08.3	Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
1:13.2	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
1:33.3	Coming up on forum, around the age of 40, something changed for Miranda July.
1:38.3	The filmmaker of me and you and everyone we know, and author of The First Bad Man, started to get worried about the coming
1:44.8	years, she told the L.A. Times, quote, when I looked forward, it looked shocking. It was a
1:49.7	narrowing and dimming of the road ahead. So July did what she does best, plunge into that unknown
1:55.0	and write about it forcefully and uninhibited. The result is all fours, which the New York Times
2:00.6	calls the first great
2:01.9	perimenopause novel. We listen back to my May conversation with Miranda July after this news.
2:15.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Writer, filmmaker, and performance artist Miranda July has a new novel about approaching menopause. All Forres introduces us to a semi-famous L.A. artist who leaves for a cross-country road trip and returns unable to fit back into her marriage and family life. With July's
2:35.8	trademark bravery, quirkiness, and emotional depth, she explores her character's fear of sexual
2:41.6	irrelevance, of her changing body and desire, and her determination not to fade quietly into
	...

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