Kate Scarth

So the book I chose was All Fours by Miranda July.

I was recommended this book by a bookseller at this like lovely bookstore in rural Nova Scotia.

And so my expectations were high because the bookseller was so excited about it.

I think what I didn't like about this book, like I just found it really self-indulgent.

So the stakes seemed like very high.

individual and that people in the main character's lives kind of just felt like props in terms of this performative art that she was making her life into, even though it was her real life, but she was kind of acting like it was a performative art piece and that people were just props.

And I really, I think as, you know, as we were just talking about with the three books that I chose, I, you know, I like books that are about like,

well, say strong female characters, strong characters.

Like I want a compelling story about an individual, but I want to know about that context, like their connections with other people, about the place, about the historical moment.

And I just don't think like all fours had that.

Like the stakes needed to be higher for me.

Yeah, absolutely.

And again, not everything has to go back to Ella Montgomery, but it might in this episode.

It might.

But I can't help but think of Anna Green Gables.

Her name is in the title of the book.

This is her story.

But we care as much about Marilla's development.

And Margaret Atwood wrote a piece when Anna Green Gables turned 100 about how

Marilla is perhaps really the heroine of the story.