First a knee update! There’s no cartilage left, and still inflamation behind the knee – so an Ultrasound Guided Steroid Injection is booked to deal with the latter. Knee replacements (the other one probably has no cartilage left either) will be the order of the day in due time. Even though I’m able to go private through work, it’s still taking ages. Meanwhile back to school tomorrow for INSET – joy! At least I get to let off some fire extinguishers this time in a refresher training session.
Now for a couple of short reviews…
All Fours by Miranda July
This novel seems to be on all the shortlists:
- Women’s Prize for Fiction
- Carol Shields Prize
- British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year
- and a book of the year 2024 by many other sites.
Sadly, it’s not on mine. It distinctly fell into the same bracket that I put Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation in that I kept on reading but wanted to throw it across the room the whole time.
A perimenopausal semi-celebrity artist based in LA has to go to NYC but hates flying. Encouraged by her husband, she decides to make a holiday of it and drive there, leaving Harris in charge of their child, Sam, whom she always talks of as ‘they’. Harris helps plan a meticulous route with stopovers.
Off she goes, but twenty minutes out of LA she realises she needs gas, so she pulls off the freeway at Monrovia. A handsome young man cleans her windscreen, and later she sees him again at a local eatery and an instant obsession takes hold. She books a room at a local motel, and basically goes no further! Full disaster woman having a mid-life crisis.
There’s a lot of sex in this book, from the title onwards, ironically not between her and the object of her desire. Sorry but I find that all boring. I’m not going to bore you with more details either. Oh, and I also really dislike the lettering on the front cover!
Source: Own copy. Canongate hardback, 326 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link.
Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan
Luckily Mary Jean Chan’s second book of poems was totally different. Bright Fear is a wonderful collection with a host of themes running through it, most notably mothers – their own, plus their birth language of Chinese, and home country – they come from HK.
Several of the poems address her encounters with people confused by their perfect English and heritage. Sexuality is also key, a lovely poem near the end is simply called ‘Out’ – and imagines asking their parents, and then ends with their acceptance giving freedom.
The forms of the poems are largely varied, from blocks of prose as poems, to simple couplets, columnar and many others in between, including a concrete poem in the shape of a wine glass.
I enjoyed these poems very much, and wish I’d marked some quotations for you. I shall look out for her debut collection, Flèche, which Bookish Beck liked even more than this one, which she reviewed for Shiny here (with quotations).
Source: Own copy. Faber flapped paperback, 2023, 64 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link.
Author Visit – Rachel Joyce
And finally, I went with a friend to see Rachel Joyce talk about her new book The Homemade God during the week in an event hosted by Mostly Books. She last came to Abingdon in 2012 for World Book Night at an event at the library to talk about The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (see my event report and review). I’ve only read one more of hers since, The Music Shop which I adored.
Her new book is her first one to have a family at its core – four siblings come together in Italy at their late father’s home on Lake Orta. He’s a celebrated artist, they are emotionally starved and there’s a heatwave, plus a much younger stepmother and a lost last painting. Plenty to unravel – and it sounds an idyllic place to research – she went there! I love the UK cover, but apparently the worm was too much for her publishers across the pond! The indie bookshop edition also has peachy sprayed edges with apple designs. I’m really looking forward to reading it soon.
Inevitably, I suppose, the questions were largely about Harold Fry – but the film – which Joyce adapted herself, being a longterm writer of radio drama and adaptations. I did love the film, a real tear-jerker with Jim Broadbent doing what he does best, and Dame Penelope Wilton giving a standout performance of repressed anger and emotion as Maureen.
It was a lovely evening, and Rachel was lovely to chat to as I got my copy signed – she remembered coming to Abingdon all those years ago.
BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link.
Oh, I hope all the knee procedures go well—how annoying and frustrating. Fingers crossed. I’ve very much assumed that All Fours would be how you said it was; the one person I know who’s had her expectations confounded by it is Laura T., but I still don’t think I’ll be seeking it out.
Thank you. I’m hoping the injection will let me ditch the stick! Fingers crossed.
On All Fours, I was so irritated by the main character. I kept on expecting her to say ‘Do you know who I am?’ – that kind of minor celeb – mind you we also found out nothing about her work… couldn’t tell you whether she was a painter, potter, sculptor, poet writer – whatever!
Best of luck with the knee – must be very painful!
All Fours has been recommended to me when I mention the novel I’m trying to write now, so perhaps I should read it so I know what annoying things to avoid? 😉
Fingers crossed for the knee!
Enough people are praising All Fours that she must be hitting the right buttons for them – just not for me. Mind you litlove didn’t love it either.
Not hugely drawn to All Fours which sounds a tad self indulgent. I hope you get some relief from the steroid injection. All those I know who’ve had knee replacements have been very pleased with the results, including a freind who had one just last week.
I think I disliked All Fours more than the Moshfegh even! Self-indulgent – definitely.
Knee replacements will have to be timed against retirement. I may have to stay on another year beyond summer 2026 to take advantage of health insurance!
I hated All Fours and didn’t finish it! Over hyped rubbish, in my view. Good luck with your knee, I’m waiting for physio for mine which I hurt in a fall! Always enjoy your reviews.
Good for you for making it a DNF – I so nearly did, but kept reading on hoping for some kind of upturn? But in the second half there was a whole cringe-making section with her and Harris having role-playing sex. Yeugh!
Yuck, glad I avoided that. My view now is that life’s too short for finishing books you’re not enjoying!
Yikes! I think All Fours would leave me cold too – thanks for taking one for the team!!
And also, sorry to hear about the knees playing up so much – I do hope they can be sorted in a relatively easy fashion. Fingers crossed! x
Ugh, sorry to hear about the knee trouble and I hope the ops help when it comes to it. Recovery will be a long haul…
I’m forcing myself through the July because of the Prize shortlistings, though I’d been stuck in the same spot for ages. I find it simultaneously profound and ridiculous, but it has certainly hit a cultural chord with women of the right age bracket (I’m a bit young for it, though I know perimenopause is on the horizon).
Glad you enjoyed Chan’s poetry!
I saw Rachel Joyce speak in Hungerford back in 2014 — coincidentally, that was also the event whereby I was introduced to The Bookshop Band (they have two songs based on Harold Fry and performed the one, plus others, in a mini-concert). I’ve read all her previous books. I’m looking forward to her new one but I’m going to wait for my library hold to come in as the NetGalley download has way too many pages.
‘Profound and ridiculous’ – quite!
I have Joyce’s Miss Bensons Beetle on my shelves , but I shall read the new book first.
Good luck with the knee! I have gone private with my Achilles but fortunately that’s only been video consultations with a physio which seem to be working. And thank you for confirming All Fours should be a DNS for me, can’t be doing with that sort of thing and I also don’t like the font on the cover!
Ouch! Sorry to hear about your knee!
Wishing you a most successful procedure and recovery.
I’m a big fan of Mary Jean Chan, glad you enjoyed Bright Fear. I started All Fours, got irritated and stopped, but loads of people have been telling me that it is worth the read. I found it a bit mannered. Hope you get the knee sorted soonx
Thanks Cathy. I wish I had stopped with All Fours as I didn’t want to read about her main characters’ mid-life crisis, but carried on, hoping.
Sorry to hear about your knee! I really was pleasantly surprised by All Fours. I’m also not a Moshfegh fan (though for me the low point was Eileen rather than My Year of R&R) but I felt it was doing something quite different. Moshfegh always seems to be indulging in grotesque for the sake of grotesque.
Interesting! I was so irritated by the main character and all the sex I really lost interest. Deep down I appreciated the Moshfeghs beyond the irritation, but didn’t have that feeling with this novel.
The protagonist is an absolutely ridiculous person but I didn’t feel I needed to like her, I guess. My review should be up on Monday.