A review by sadiereadsagain
Fear Of Flying by Erica Jong

3.0

This was much better than I'd expected. It's reputation does it no service, as I had kind of expected a feminist 50 Shades...but was so glad to find that was not what this book is! The sex is actually pretty minimal (for a book about sex) and not very hardcore. I liked Isadora, though I did find her problematic as a feminist figure
Spoilerbecause although the book ends with her possibly finding her identity beyond the men in her life, it's not a given and the whole of the book is spent with her defining herself by her relationships. Maybe if Jong had spent more time on that self discovery and less on talking about psychoanalysis, I'd have felt this book more rightly deserved it's feminist stamp.
It is very of it's time but in the same breath it doesn't feel dated. A lot of ideas in it must have been quite radical when it first came out, and I love the bravery of it. The part where she unexpectedly gets her period is something that can still be taboo to talk about now, so it was pretty cool to see it being put out there like that. I just wish there had been more about Isadora and less about the men in her life.