If you take a chisel and gently chip off the elaborate encrustation of florid psychology that at times sends this novel moonwalking towards the field of dreams that is bizarro fiction but really only up to its multihued verges and peeking across, then what I think you get is the plot of the 1966 Swingin' London film Georgy Girl blended with the lunatic character swerves and switcheroos from any Iris Murdoch novel garnished with the sweet suburban Miss Lonely atmosphere of Miranda July's own gorgeous movie Me and You and Everyone we Know. Or : if A M Homes and Miranda July went to a party dressed as each other no one would notice. Lorrie Moore, though, she'd be fuming (they're wearing her dress but it looks sexier on them!), but you can't copyright being really funny and sad about American suburbia. 
 There's a Bad Sex in Fiction award given yearly by the (British) Guardian newspaper. Miranda July will not win. All the sex in this novel is bad, but it's deliberately very bad, wince-inducing, and there's quite a lot of it. I will spare you the details but do not read most of this book while eating cereals, they may well go up your nose. 
 So as I was saying 
 Hey there, 42 year old Cheryl Glickman 
 Swingin' down the street so fancy-free 
 Nobody you meet could ever see the loneliness there - inside you 
 Hey there, 42 year old Cheryl Glickman 
 Why do all the boys just pass you by? 
 Could it be you just don't try or is it the clothes you wear? 
 Don't be so scared of changing and rearranging yourself 
 It's time for jumping down from the shelf 
 So she jumps or actually she's kind of violently pushed by a strapping 21 year old blonde bombshell called Clee and .... Well, all the other reviews will tell you what happens then, or you could let MJ tell you herself. When I pick a novel to read I don't want to know much about it except it's supposed to be good. 
 It seems people have been dancing naked in the streets to celebrate the wonderful loveliness of this novel. Well, I wouldn't go that far. I'd doff my overcoat and loosen my tie and say "yeah, pretty good" a few times. It was nice. It was in favour of people and it has an understanding that there are those who in the midst of a teeming planet live lonely lives. I kind of sort of maybe-ish well yes okay recommend this. If you don't mind a lot of detailed bad sex and even more where the characters are thinking about the bad sex they want to have or have had. 3.5 stars.