All Fours

1. General Impressions

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

• Like much of Miranda July’s work, this book has been characterized by reviewers as a work of autofiction. How does July use the techniques and privileges of fiction to explore her own experience? Can July’s novels and films be seen as working together to trace the longer arc of her life as an artist? How does this novel fit into that arc? 
• Is All Fours ultimately optimistic or pessimistic about contemporary, heterosexual marriage? Does it believe that an equitable and mutually fulfilling marriage is possible for these characters? 

2. Personal Reflection and Connection

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

• Think of a period of self-reflection and change in your own life. What prompted this period of change? Who did you rely on for guidance? 
• The narrator decides that instead of “a life spent longing,” she wants “a life that is continually surprising” (212). Do you feel that a “continually surprising” life is desirable? Does this emphasis on surprise necessarily come at the expense of stable, lasting relationships? 
• Think of a time when you took a vacation from your daily life without traveling far from home. Where did you go? How did you create a sense of separation between this protected space and your typical routine? What did this vacation accomplish? 

3. Societal and Cultural Context 

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

• How does the novel raise questions about what it means to be both a mother and an artist? How does the narrator balance the demands of motherhood against the demands of her work and her desire for self-fulfillment? 
• What image of 21st-century marriage emerges in this book? How do the narrator and her husband, Harris, seek to build a marriage in which each partner’s autonomy is respected? 
• What does the novel suggest about the politics of gender in the 21st century? How are the narrator’s choices defined or limited by her identity as a woman, a wife, and a mother? 

4. Literary Analysis 

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

• The narrator plans to take a cross-country road trip, but she ends up spending the time in a suburban hotel 30 minutes from her home in Los Angeles. How does the setting of Monrovia serve as an unexpected site of self-discovery? In what ways is it both exotic and familiar to the narrator? 
• Which characters serve as mentors to the narrator? Which serve as antagonists? Do these roles shift as the novel progresses? 
• How does dance serve as a motif throughout the novel? Does it signify different things for the narrator and for Davey? 
• How do the narrator’s personality and worldview shape the story? To what degree does the narrator’s character emerge through the way she sees and describes events, rather than through her actions? 

5. Creative Engagement

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

• The novel’s opening gestures toward the conventional road-trip novel—a trope in which the protagonist’s literal journey from one place to another mirrors their interior journey of self-discovery. Write a short story in which the same narrator actually takes the trip she plans to take. How would the story be different? 
• Create a playlist for the narrator’s road trip. What songs would she listen to while driving, and how would these specific songs provide a foundation for the work of self-discovery and transformation she undertakes? 

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