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A review by jennifer
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
5.0
The First Bad Man is the best book I've read in recent memory. Totally fresh, startling, gross, and very very funny.
Cheryl Glickman is a lost soul, prone to the kind of inner monologue of someone who's lived alone in LA for too long. The genius is that, despite her weirdness, you can't help relating to her (if you're me, perhaps a little more often than is comfortable).
She works at Open Palm, a non-profit dedicated to self-defense and rife with dysfunctional relationships. When the dysfunctional relationships extend into Cheryl's house and the daughter of the owners of the non-profit moves in unbidden, the real fun begins.
Other than the comedy and genuine emotion, this book excels at its evocation of California. From the opening scene at a Chromotherapy office to the sly references to Ojai to the pretentious adoption of Japanese or pseudo-Japanese etiquette at the non-profit, California makes this book possible (or is it this stuff that makes California possible?). In a hundred small ways, this book is as Californian as The White Album or Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Cheryl Glickman is a lost soul, prone to the kind of inner monologue of someone who's lived alone in LA for too long. The genius is that, despite her weirdness, you can't help relating to her (if you're me, perhaps a little more often than is comfortable).
She works at Open Palm, a non-profit dedicated to self-defense and rife with dysfunctional relationships. When the dysfunctional relationships extend into Cheryl's house and the daughter of the owners of the non-profit moves in unbidden, the real fun begins.
Other than the comedy and genuine emotion, this book excels at its evocation of California. From the opening scene at a Chromotherapy office to the sly references to Ojai to the pretentious adoption of Japanese or pseudo-Japanese etiquette at the non-profit, California makes this book possible (or is it this stuff that makes California possible?). In a hundred small ways, this book is as Californian as The White Album or Slouching Towards Bethlehem.