I suspect that most readers will either love or hate this book, either that or read it with a sense of perplexity! I had the same response in reading this book as I have when watching Lena Dunham's 'Girls' on TV - and I guess it's no coincidence that the same Lena Dunham has written a very positive review of this book which appears on the back cover. It's worth quoting from that review: "By the time July tackles motherhood, the book has become a bible. Never has a novel spoken so deeply to my sexuality, my spirituality, my secret self. I know I am not alone."
This is a very eccentric novel, with very eccentric characters, and an unpredictable plot. Cheryl Glickman is the narrator - she is a plain, awkward, deluded and self-absorbed woman in her 40s. Cheryl is in love with Phillip, who is on the board of the non-profit women's self defense studio where Cheryl works. Phillip is not in love with Cheryl. When her bosses at the non-profit dump their recalcitrant daughter on her, her life changes in ways which neither Cheryl, nor the reader, could have predicted. 'The First Bad Man' is, like 'Girls', sometimes excruciating, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes hilarious; I just can't decide whether I liked it or not. I definitely admired it, I'm impressed by it, but it's very strange..