Scan barcode
A review by valhallaray
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
4.0
If you’re easily offended, this is not a book for you; it’s outdated in many ways, and many of its jokes won’t fly these days.
But it has some redeeming qualities. I thought I was going to read some intelligent 70’s smut, but I was tricked into less smut and more intelligence. It’s a little daft at the surface, but there are big ideas under these sheets, ahem I mean pages.
Yes, the author/narrator is self-involved, but what else do you expect from a 1st person stream-of-conscious narrative about a woman’s life and exploits? It’s rather honest in that way - she doesn’t try to dress herself up and write herself into a better person.
Most impressively, she manages to put into words many conflicting thoughts, desires, and ideas that faced women of the time and still face many of us today. How do we choose between comfort and passion? Between adventure and safety? Why can’t we have both?
She poses these questions, as well as others, but no answers. Are there answers? Who knows - I don’t think that book’s been written yet. But she poses one final question, the one that’s the most important: how do we choose to define ourselves, not by the person we’re with, but by our own selves? This one has an answer, but only we can answer it.
But it has some redeeming qualities. I thought I was going to read some intelligent 70’s smut, but I was tricked into less smut and more intelligence. It’s a little daft at the surface, but there are big ideas under these sheets, ahem I mean pages.
Yes, the author/narrator is self-involved, but what else do you expect from a 1st person stream-of-conscious narrative about a woman’s life and exploits? It’s rather honest in that way - she doesn’t try to dress herself up and write herself into a better person.
Most impressively, she manages to put into words many conflicting thoughts, desires, and ideas that faced women of the time and still face many of us today. How do we choose between comfort and passion? Between adventure and safety? Why can’t we have both?
She poses these questions, as well as others, but no answers. Are there answers? Who knows - I don’t think that book’s been written yet. But she poses one final question, the one that’s the most important: how do we choose to define ourselves, not by the person we’re with, but by our own selves? This one has an answer, but only we can answer it.