Parenting, perimenopause and ‘tampon sex': Why so many Toronto women are obsessed with a novel about blowing up their lives
'I feel like I've actually been in that room. I can picture it.' It's a Sunday afternoon in Parkdale and Laura Dawe, a painter in her early 40s, is talking to her still life class about a fictional motel room in a cult novel. Dawe, who is in the process of repainting her studio, hasn't been able to get the image of a lavishly decorated rose-hued space out of her mind since reading 'All Fours,' Miranda July's sexually explicit roman à clef, last year. Dawe has her own distinctive aesthetic. But something about July's description — vivid and borderline surrealist — has stuck in her mind. Painting a room is no longer simply painting a room; for Dawe, it's become a minor act of All Fours-ing.
I first encountered All Fours-ing — as a verb — in conversation with Laura Shaw, a software researcher and divorced mother of a 7-year-old, who lives in Corso Italia. Shaw read July's novel last summer and has been discussing its central themes — motherhood, perimenopause, open relationships, aging, art, and sex — with friends ever since. Like hundreds of other Toronto readers — and thousands more around the world — Shaw felt 'All Fours' captured something singular about the experience of contemporary womanhood. To 'all fours' is, as Shaw explains it, 'to blow up your life.'
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Book Review: A fingerprint expert obsessed with learning the fate of her missing sister
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Toronto Star
01-06-2025
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Perimenopause, polyamory and ‘tampon sex': Inside the novel that has Toronto women talking about blowing up their lives
'I feel like I've actually been in that room. I can picture it.' It's a Sunday afternoon in Parkdale and Laura Dawe, a painter in her early 40s, is talking to her still life class about a fictional motel room in a cult novel. Dawe, who is in the process of repainting her studio, hasn't been able to get the image of a lavishly decorated rose-hued space out of her mind since reading 'All Fours,' Miranda July's sexually explicit roman à clef, last year. Dawe has her own distinctive aesthetic. But something about July's description — vivid and borderline surrealist — has stuck in her mind. Painting a room is no longer simply painting a room; for Dawe, it's become a minor act of All Fours-ing. I first encountered All Fours-ing — as a verb — in conversation with Laura Shaw, a software researcher and divorced mother of a 7-year-old, who lives in Corso Italia. Shaw read July's novel last summer and has been discussing its central themes — motherhood, perimenopause, open relationships, aging, art, and sex — with friends ever since. Like hundreds of other Toronto readers — and thousands more around the world — Shaw felt 'All Fours' captured something singular about the experience of contemporary womanhood. To 'all fours' is, as Shaw explains it, 'to blow up your life.' Opinion articles are based on the author's interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Toronto Star
31-05-2025
- Toronto Star
Parenting, perimenopause and ‘tampon sex': Why so many Toronto women are obsessed with a novel about blowing up their lives
'I feel like I've actually been in that room. I can picture it.' It's a Sunday afternoon in Parkdale and Laura Dawe, a painter in her early 40s, is talking to her still life class about a fictional motel room in a cult novel. Dawe, who is in the process of repainting her studio, hasn't been able to get the image of a lavishly decorated rose-hued space out of her mind since reading 'All Fours,' Miranda July's sexually explicit roman à clef, last year. Dawe has her own distinctive aesthetic. But something about July's description — vivid and borderline surrealist — has stuck in her mind. Painting a room is no longer simply painting a room; for Dawe, it's become a minor act of All Fours-ing. I first encountered All Fours-ing — as a verb — in conversation with Laura Shaw, a software researcher and divorced mother of a 7-year-old, who lives in Corso Italia. Shaw read July's novel last summer and has been discussing its central themes — motherhood, perimenopause, open relationships, aging, art, and sex — with friends ever since. Like hundreds of other Toronto readers — and thousands more around the world — Shaw felt 'All Fours' captured something singular about the experience of contemporary womanhood. To 'all fours' is, as Shaw explains it, 'to blow up your life.'
