Bustle Book Club
Miranda July’s Year Of Perimenopausal Thinking
The author’s novel has been lighting up group chats since its release this spring.
While Oxford University Press anointed “brain rot” as the word of the year, in many circles, “perimenopause” reigned supreme.
It all started this spring, when Miranda July published All Fours — heralded by the New York Times as “the first great perimenopause novel.” The book follows a woman who heads out on an ill-fated road trip from Los Angeles to New York, and ultimately embarks on a sexual awakening spurred by her changing hormones. For July, it’s a personal story. “I wanted to change my conception of aging, which ultimately required changing my life,” says the author who, much like her protagonist, recently separated from her husband. “As it turned out, I wasn’t so afraid of getting older, I just didn’t want to get older within the particular framework I had created.”
But July had no idea that her own revolution would be such a revelation to her readers. It led the book to be selected as a National Book Award finalist, commemorated with the celeb-loved “All Fours Group Chat” baseball cap, and remain at the forefront of our expanding discourse around perimenopause. “The book, for some people, has functioned like a sort of wild friend who has an impact on how you see yourself,” July says. “I’ve gotten so many moving and exciting messages — these honest stories are what I was starving for five years ago when I started writing the book.”
Now that its publication is behind her, July still finds herself fantasizing about the world of All Fours — and is overflowing with ideas for an adaptation, though she won’t specify whether she’s leaning toward TV or film.
“[The novel is] very internal, of course, and that can be really hard with an adaptation, but I also feel like it’s very physical with all the dance and the sex and the interior decoration. There’s a lot to look at and I actually haven’t had that in the movies that I've made so far — not to that degree,” she says. “I’m often picturing who the actress would be playing the narrator — how much can be said with just her face.”
Below, July reflects on the merits of eBay, her uncomfortable writing chair, and what she’s reading now.
On the literary press she can’t get enough of:
Right now I’m reading How to F*ck Like a Girl by Vera Blossom. It's great. I'm tearing through it. She's a trans femme lady; the book is by Dopamine Press, which is Michelle Tea's press. That's another writer, Michelle Tea, you should check out.
On getting her heart rate up:
I don't listen to music while writing, but the whole time I was writing All Fours I would walk to my office in the morning, which was about a 17-minute walk, and it involved some intense stairs and so I felt like that kind of got my blood moving and was something a little bit physically challenging before I got into the intellectual challenges.
On her lack of lumbar support:
I wrote All Fours, and everything else, in the cheapest most uncomfortable wooden chair you ever saw. I do always mean to upgrade but on what day is “buy chair” going to be my top priority?
On days when the writing doesn’t go her way:
I take a bath, call a friend, cry, disassociate in some form (like looking at vintage clothes on eBay). The bath would have Epsom salts in it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
