{"id":5568,"date":"2015-11-30T12:47:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T12:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=5568"},"modified":"2015-12-03T12:28:50","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T12:28:50","slug":"the-first-bad-man-by-miranda-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=5568","title":{"rendered":"The First Bad Man by Miranda July"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Canongate Books UK, Scribner US<\/strong><\/p>\n

288pp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to buy this book<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Even Shakespeare, viewing all the world as a stage, might have raised an eyebrow at the unimaginable heights of weirdness, perversity, sex and comedy that imbue the roles played in filmmaker July\u2019s first novel. Unexpected, barmy yet oddly irresistible, this extravaganza of eccentricity nevertheless manages to say something peculiarly touching about women\u2019s lives and choices.<\/p>\n

The central character is Cheryl Glickman, middle-aged, obsessive\/compulsive, a put-upon worker in a charity that makes money selling safety videos for women in role-play format that double as workout routines. The charity\u2019s founders pretend to philanthropy while living lives of unbounded exploitation and self-centred meanness. The receptionist at the medical practice Cheryl attends for her globus hystericus<\/em> doubles as a therapist herself. The homeless man who plays the part of Cheryl\u2019s landscaper is far from what he seems. And Cheryl herself, in her head at least, takes the parts of sexual partner and mother into realms which bear only the most vestigial relationship with reality.<\/p>\n

Into this scenario wanders Clee, the surly daughter of Cheryl\u2019s bosses who is foisted onto Cheryl as a rent-free roommate. What begins as a hellish invasion turns gradually much stranger as Clee and Cheryl develop a relationship based on role-play that includes physical violence and later a sexual dimension that connects to Cheryl\u2019s equally bizarre relationship with an older man, Phillip. A fantasy baby that turns into solid flesh and a brief burst of lesbianism are added to the surreal mix.<\/p>\n

Written from Cheryl\u2019s perspective, this oxymoronic tale lurches from sentimentality to empathy and away into the stratosphere with smooth nonchalance. Tender, but smart enough, generally, to puncture the balloon when emotions start to soar, this is a deft, modern, endearing piece of work that borrows the term \u2018kook\u2019 from David Bowie and gives it a whole new lease of life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/p>\n

* A 2015 Notable Book<\/p>\n

The central character is Cheryl Glickman, middle-aged, obsessive\/compulsive, a put-upon worker in a charity that makes money selling safety videos for women in role-play format that double as workout routines. The charity\u2019s founders pretend to philanthropy while living lives of unbounded exploitation and self-centred meanness. The receptionist at the medical practice Cheryl attends for her globus hystericus doubles as a therapist herself. The homeless man who plays the part of Cheryl\u2019s landscaper is far from what he seems. And Cheryl herself, in her head at least, takes the parts of sexual partner and mother into realms which bear only the most vestigial relationship with reality […] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5568"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6403,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5568\/revisions\/6403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}