I admit it. I am a Miranda July fan girl. To me, all media she touches turns to gold: Learning to Love You More, Me You and Everyone We Know, the Somebody App; her insight into the way humans relate with each other is untraditionally romantic. She nudges you to have creative, spirit lifting interactions with everyday moments.
SOMEBODY - MIU MIU - WOMEN'S TALES #8
I did however, approach her first novel with apprehension. Will The First Bad Man live up to the genius I know and love? Well, it did. It blew me away and I am still thinking about it six weeks later. I have never read a narrative like this before and it's a difficult story to describe.
The First Bad Man's protagonist, the eccentric Cheryl Glickman made me clutch at my face with an equal feeling of hilarity and discomfort. Forty something, single and in a comfortable career at Open Palm, an NGO which makes self defence videos for women. Her peers see her as dowdy and strange (she is encouraged by her colleagues to work from home.) She can communicate with babies, she is obsessively in love with a man named Philip and she lives a completely streamlined, minimalist lifestyle that is rather bonkers.
Cheryl's OCD method of living all goes belly up when she's peer pressured into housing Clee, the buxom but lazy, 21 year old daughter of her employers. Clee quickly becomes a nightmare - an intimidating bully that takes over Cheryl's lonesome home. However, when Cheryl starts fighting back, a mutual ground is met and an unconventional relationship blossoms.
Cheryl can be a rather frustrating person to the people around her, but we, the lucky reader, get to absorb the best part of her - an inner monologue that is honest, endearing and completely mesmerising. Lorde's quote of this story being 'weird and warm and AMAZING' is truly on point. July pushes comfort levels whilst describing the fleshy reality of sex and other bodily functions - this is both refreshing and incredibly hilarious.
What continued my jollies about this book, was the release of The First Bad Man website, where you can bid on objects featured in the novel. A full length corduroy dress, a name written on a piece of paper, gum flavoured popcorn. July releases (for a price) these mundane items into the real world, breathing even more life into the world of her characters.
I know it's only February, and there are some fantastic books coming out this year, but this is without a doubt, my book of 2015.
The First Bad Man
Miranda July
NZ Release: early February 2015
