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Cover of The First Bad Man

Fiction · 2015 · R

The First Bad Man

by Miranda July

She had her life exactly the way she wanted it. Then someone moved in.

Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people's babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women's self-defense nonprofit where she works. She believes they've been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one. When Cheryl's bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter, Clee, can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl's eccentrically ordered world explodes. And ye

For17+GenreFictionLength272 pagesRead time~7 hours

This analysis was generated by AI from publicly available reader reviews, literary criticism, and book discussions. It has not been verified by a BookLens community reviewer and may contain errors. Be the first to verify →

Content snapshot

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What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.

Violence

Some

Physical altercations; violence between characters plays a central role

Language

Some

Some strong language

Sexual Content

A lot

Explicit sexual content and fantasies; the novel is frank about desire and transgression

Substance Use

None

No substance use

Emotional Intensity

A lot

Deeply strange psychological landscape; the narrator's inner world is as important as the external events

What this book is about

Cheryl Glickman has her solitary life organized with precision when her employer's daughter Clee moves in — and their relationship becomes strange, violent, and eventually transformative. Miranda July's debut novel is darkly comic, sexually explicit, and deeply weird in ways that are both off-putting and disarming. A literary novel for readers who want fiction that doesn't behave the way they expect.

Notes for sensitive readers

Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.

Explicit sexual content

Physical violence as part of the central dynamic

Transgressive literary fiction

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