The First Bad Man

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Not the Fall That Kills You…: The killer in "Dumb-Hounded" jumps off a tall building to his supposed death, but he has "good brakes" that he uses to screech himself to a halt just before hitting the pavement, on which he lands as gentle as a feather.

Sometimes I just need a book to take me completely out of my own world and to someplace else altogether. This time I don’t mean the armchair travel sort of story. I need something that doesn’t make me have to sit and reflect on my own life. I want a novel that is so far out there that I can just sit and bask in its weirdness, but at the same time marvel at its cleverness. A book that can make me laugh and one that can make me say “Oh, how wonderfully rude!” When I saw Goodreads friend Justin had read this, I couldn’t resist the intrigue I felt while reading his review. I put the book on hold right away. When it came in I took a peek at the first paragraph while at work. I laughed out loud and then had to explain myself. Or rather, Miranda July needed to explain herself. I knew I was going to follow through with the whole thing. Starred Review. This well-written, compelling novel will delight the open-minded reader looking for something new. It will satisfy July's fans and win her many more." - Library Journal

The First Bad Man

I wanted more for Cheryl other than her life's plan being dictated by the poor choices of a psychotic houseguest (I never really got why the parents didn't just give Clee money to live on her own...I wanted to strangle Carl and Suzanne in every appearance...sic some of Marcellus Wallace's crew on Philip). Too bad July didn't. Want more for Cheryl, that is. A personal development center providing free life skills courses in literacy, computing and math, alongside creative classes in art, woodwork and gardening

My main criticism is that the satire is not sufficiently consistent, or perhaps not sufficiently intentional. Throughout large passages in the book, I felt that July was actually encouraging the reader to buy into what I had hoped she was ripping off - for example, the epilogue reads too much to me like a happy ending. I think this book works *only* as satire - not as e.g. a post-modern love story. The characters are not well-drawn enough for the latter; they are caricatures, and they don't elicit sympathy from an intelligent reader. Miranda July, you wonderfully weird creature. This book is probably one of the craziest things I've ever read, but it works, absolutely and completely. She crafts sentences that make you think the world was missing something until they were written. She finds genuine humor in the sadness, and poignancy in the mundane. Billy Boy: A short centered on a baby Extreme Omnigoat. Also the second appearance of the Southern wolf. This book is bizarre. I was talking about it with a librarian who had read this and her short stories, and he said something that I'm going to put here and possibly misquote. Quirky characters and strange situations are more tolerable in short stories, because they are in and out, you can marvel at them but not have to live with them; in a novel it can cause agony to the reader as you dive deeper into strange people making confusing decisions. Agreed, agreed. I would probably like July's short stories, and plan to read No One Belongs Here More Than You at some point. I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone. Country Mouse: The premise of "Little Rural Riding Hood." The Country Wolf is invited to the city by his cousin, who warns him that "Here in the city we do not yell and whistle at the ladies." When Country Wolf sees Red, however, he simply can't help himself.

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Through all of this is a situation with a therapist who plays a receptionist as a twice yearly bit of role playing, and Cheryl is drawn to certain babies who speak to her on a cellular level. And there are the regular texts from Phillip, which she uses in her super rich fantasy life.

Brilliant, hilarious, irreverent, piercing-- T he First Bad Man powers past sexual boundaries and gender identification into the surprising galaxy of primal connection" ( O, The Oprah Magazine). I wondered how many other women had sat on this toilet and stared at this floor. Each of them the center of their own world, all of them yearning for someone to put their love into so they could see their love, see that they had it."Born in the Theatre: Definitely a favorite of Tex's, from characters running off of the film they're printed on, to yelling at members of the movie theater audience, to pulling stray hairs out of the theater projectors, to passing the boundary of the Toon universe where Technicolor ends.