How midlife became a crisis

By Matthew Redmond, Université de Lille In the acknowledgments of her 2024 novel “All Fours,” Miranda July explains that she was inspired by a series of conversations about “physical and emotional midlife changes” with several women close to her. “And while there is almost no trace of these actual conversations in the book,” she adds, “they made writing it more necessary.” The novel finds a middle-aged mother choosing to leave home and drive across the country in search of herself. Sound a little hackneyed? Maybe that’s why she gives up after about 30 minutes, pulling into a dingy motel and instead trying to turn back time from her new home base, the appropriately chosen Room 321. In this bland environment she undergoes a physical and spiritual awakening – a dance to the Muzak of time. Whether remodeling her motel room or defying libidinal decline with a nearby Hertz rental car employee, July’s protagonist, who talks a lot about respiration – “I breathed in; I breathed out” – finally breathes life back into herself. Along the way, “All Fours” frames middle age as something that must be felt and communicated afresh, one powerful, awkward, minutely recorded sensation at a time. Easier...