Miranda July: All Fours

How do you rebuild a life in your 40s, after spending decades making your most consequential choices: where to live, who to marry, kids or no kids?

You can see your own mortality clearer than ever, and the last vestiges of youth seem to be fading. It's a last chance to really explore choices unmade and uncover any unknown corners of your own psyche. A last chance to destroy and rebuild your life with decades more experience to draw from.

As I am just entering this decade myself, these kinds of issues were on my own mind as I read "All Fours" by Miranda July. Culturally, the midlife crisis has been the domain of men, with tropes of younger partners and new cars to feel young again. But women truly bear the brunt of this age, as drastic changes in perimenopause and menopause loom far more imminently.

I found the book propulsively readable and a refreshing inspection of this stage of life that sneaks up on all of us. Highly recommended.