The First Bad Man

Miranda July

2015 • 288 pages

Ratings39

Average rating3.6

From the acclaimed filmmaker, artist, and bestselling author of no one belongs here more than you, comes a spectacular debut novel that is so heartbreaking, so dirty, so tender, so funny, so Miranda July. Readers will be astonished.

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 yet it is Clee—the selfish, cruel blond bombshell—who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime.

Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual obsession and fierce maternal love, Miranda July’s first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic, and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable.

Genres

Mood

reflective

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Carlin

finished reading this today so that I didn't have to bring an almost finished book on holiday. Probably not the correct choice, I should've just bought a book if I needed to on holiday ahah

Absolutely love her writing style, everyone I've recommended this to I've described it as a weird person in a weird world. Now I've read it I wish I was a bit more tentative about my recommendation ahaha

definitely literary fiction and definitely a comedy. Lots of this will stick in my mind and can see myself re-reading eventually

I don't think the epilogue was needed. Half off for the ending and its pacing, but also maybe it was how I ended up reading it today

April 21, 2025

Mimi

Had potential, but despite the quirky characters and unusual plot, it dragged after a while. Fulfills my Read Harder Challenge category of a debut novel.

May 31, 2017

Anna

Competently written, but it just didn't move me. Actually no, it did gross me out quite a bit but other than that, no.

The amount of ‘quirky' was through the roof, very early 00s peak-hipster era, before the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope got us rolling our eyes.

Also most of it was about babies and I'd never have picked it up if I'd known that.

I gave in to the hype so that's probably made the disappointment worse, overall it was an enjoyable and hilarious read. Not sure what I expected.

March 15, 2015