A book a day: Miranda July: the first bad man

Original Language: English.
Títutulu Original: The First Bad Man.
Translation: Luis Murillo Fort.
Year of publication: 2015.
Valoración: advisable.

They say that All fours, The recent and still impulsed in Spanish novel by Miranda July, was one of the books of the year 2024. Many things are said, because, we still do not know how much) the US publishing industry is influential to all the bands that can be: from Its literary awards curdled with winners and finalists, to the enthusiastic recommendations for reading the most diverse (and away from the literary world) or the physical location of the great giants of the edition. In any case, and with the pure reluctance of skepticism that may cause us, that ability to generate products, exalt authors, etc., must always have the necessary firewalls such as, for example, independent blogs with collaborators suffered, such as the case.

It is clear, in any case, that the process usually presents similarities. Miranda July’s first novel is previously successful in a short story collection and a non-fiction work, but it turns out that its author has made her steps as performer (…), actress and filmmaker. Wow, what is said pack of attempts to transcend in the cultural world. So from newly arrived in the cultural environment, nothing. The first bad man It is a strange novel and something perverse. More original in its particular situations than in its structure, which makes it a bit difficult to execute a stylistic judgment: it neither has the functional tone of a best-seller nor is a lyrical tone that leaves footprint. Perhaps the plane of establishing metaphors can give some more play when specifying those first novel achievements that, I mean the previous paragraph, justify the hype That seems to occur.

Cheryl Glickman is a middle -aged woman who lives alone. Its economic situation seems relieved, is part of the Board of Directors of an NGO and we believe you are one of those accommodated class people that has a large nucleus of contacts and relationships that allow it not to worry about worldly issues. In a kind of destiny back, a marriage of partners of the organization asks him to take care of Clee, daughter twenty -year -old who is installed in one of the rooms of his house. Cheryl’s life, already unconventional, suffers a full -fledged assault because the presence of the young woman is not limited to impacting Cheryl with her strange life habits, nothing healthy. A strange relationship is established that passes through different physical and mental states, with fights, reconciliations, staging of some of the curious self -defense videos that the NGO publishes, incorporation of adjacent elements (an imaginary baby of curious name to which Cheryl speaks, A partner friend of the NGO who uses Cheryl as a counselor in his strange sexual fantasies) that generate a kind of sensation to halfway between chaos, discomfort and an insane halo that crosses each page – obviously Clee’s parents will end up knowing about The strange relationship between her daughter and the partner who had to take care of her. Worse, in one of his comings and goings, Clee becomes pregnant and has a baby.

More than a psychological novel, a challenge by incorporating disruptive elements that is attractive in its approach, but perhaps somewhat bizarre, such as a kind of bourgeois game resulting from boredom and abulia applied to excess free time.