Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Aug 02, 2008

Jessica added it

Earlier on this evening I was talking to my sainted mother on the telephone, and she noted that I seemed to be "reading a lot of intellectual books lately," to which I reacted with vehemently indignant daughterly rage: "I am NOT, Mom!"

Why my mother's comment should seem so thoroughly offensive is a fitting subject for my analyst (a mythical figure about whom I love to fantasize but probably wouldn't enjoy much if he actually existed), though not so much for the in More...

27 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2008

Karen rated it:

Let me start off by saying that I liked this book - I really did. Isadora Wing (with a name like that, Erica Jong brings the concept of 'thinly veiled autobiography' to new heights) is an exuberant and lovable character. I thought the writing was very good in parts, even though other parts read as if a six-year-old Erica was sitting in her bedroom with a Barbie and two Ken dolls, mashing them together and transcribing the dialogue (she does say she fell in love with her husband because of his sm More...

7 comments like (17 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Taylor rated it:

For whatever reason (possibly because someone I recommended it to wasn't that thrilled by it), I feel a bit like I need to defend this book lately, and since I reviewed it when I first joined this site and most people were writing shorter reviews, I'd like to give it a better write-up.

The premise of Fear of Flying is fairly simple: Isadora White Wing is in a marriage she isn't exactly happy with. Her husband isn't especially warm to her, nor is he incredibly supportive of her career More...

6 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2007

Michelle rated it:

Can't judge before I finish, and I'm only halfway done. My first impressions are that this is a pioneering book in the area, and I'm supposed to judge it for its pioneeringness than because I like its intrinsic qualities. Like Jackson Pollack.

Update after I finished reading:
She's a fantastic writer with a gift for vivid storytelling, but the story of her (okay, fine, Isadora's) life isn't a particularly worthwhile one to tell. Fear of Flying seems like a particularly neurotic p More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2008

Megan rated it:

I remember that when I called my grandmother to tell her that I was going to be in the vagina monologues, I expected her to react to the name: I expected her to be unaware of Eve Ensler and what V-Day is about. She simply said, "You should read Fear of Flying- it's like the first vagina monologue."

As it happens, she was so right. It's the kind of book you really regret not reading years earlier, when you really needed some of this information. If I'd read it as a teenage More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

At first, I found FEAR OF FLYING hilarious. She talks nonstop about sex and analysis, dropping the F bomb like there's no tomorrow, espousing this funny social commentary about life and marriage, a quasi-feminist rant (very feminist for 1973), yet she loves it when men grab her behind (not feminist anyway you slice it). I was started reading it because it was the IT book in 1973. My mom, who would not normally read something like this, for example, read it. She HAD to read it. EVERYONE read More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2010

Manny rated it:

iw69: hello. i want you now

mannyrayner: do we know each other?

iw69: not at all, that's the point. i thought we could just have a completely no-strings-attached sexual encounter for its own sake, and then say goodbye. wouldn't that be poetic and beautiful?

mannyrayner: um, well, maybe. i'm sorry, i guess i should just be doing this and not analyzing it. can i at least have a name or will that ruin everything?

iw69: i'm isadora

mannyrayner: More...

16 comments like (19 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Dianne rated it:

I read this book on a plane--two planes, actually--got halfway through on the trip out, finished on the return flight. (ok, and on the BART and the MUNI after that, but mostly on planes.)

At first it was slow, or maybe not slow, but I wasn't totally won over. I was like, "ok, ground-breaking novel...but what's with all the psychoanalysis talk? And isn't this outdated, sexually/culturally?" But by the end I was loving it. Definitely not outdated, still relevant. It get More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 22, 2010

Lauren rated it:

Last month I read a chick lit novel whose idea of feminism was to avoid men and portray women as either victims of their unhappy marriages or single and thus empowered to almost mythical proportions. Whatever its noble intentions it made feminism look like a joke. The best thing I can say about it is that it made me long for something far bolder, more complex, and better written. I'd had Fear of Flying on my shelf for a few years and had started it a few times without finishing. Now I found myse More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2009

Charly rated it:

Read this book a long time ago and remember at as being both humerous and with tounge firmly in cheek a political statement on women's rights. Really enjoyed the read. I am not sure but I think it will stand the test of time well

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 20, 2007

liz rated it:

An important novel, but not one that I especially enjoyed. I have heard there was a time when chronicling the sexual acts and desires of a heroine in crude, lusty language was incendiary. Thanks in some part to this book, that time has passed. Fear of Flying is a solid portrayal of female yearning, but not much more than that.
The copy I bought to replace the one I lost on a plane had the afterword written by Jong thirty years after the original publication, and I am really glad I read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2007

Sarah rated it:

I found this very dated and not relevant to women today. Not only because the zipless fuck is less likely to happen but because the book dosen't seem to approach realtionships with any equality. The psychology of the book seemed like the most outdated part. For me the writting was not good enough to overcome the shortcomings of the story. I appreciate that the the book for the impact it made on women's sexual liberation and freedom, but not relevant in today's sexual practices or norms. More int More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Rachel rated it:

Catching up on 2011 reviews...it was exactly worth 2 stars. It was OK in the end.

Finished this for July book club. I thought I'd read this my first year out of college, but once complete I realized I'd given up on it before. I almost did again -- if there'd been a plot review on Wikipedia so I could participate comfortably in discussion, I would not have finished. I disliked the main character up until the last tenth. Her development was seriously arrested somewhere around 10th grade. More...

0 comments like

Dec 27, 2011

Melissa rated it:

I absolutely love this book. At first I was shocked by Erica's direct way of talking about things. But the more I read the more I realized how afraid I am of sexuality. She was so brave and open and I just wanted to grab some wine and drink with the awesome woman who wrote this. I laughed out loud several times. I loved how she had been through real struggles (sorry Elizabeth Gilbert) and had lived to tell about it. She was so brave, honest and open and I couldn't put the book down until I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 09, 2011

Kimberly rated it:

There is something to be said about a writer that creates a relatable, all engrossing world within the pages of her book. For me, that is a marker of good writing – writing that speaks to me and allows me to be taken on a ride within the world of the protagonist. This creates a story that has me compulsively turning pages, eager to read more. A good writer creates a protagonist that leads herself to be a transparent guide to understand the world through her eyes, to relate her experiences with m More...

0 comments like

Aug 07, 2011

Samuel rated it:

How is it that Isadora Wing is such a sympathetic character? She has sex on the brain constantly; she dreams about 'zipless fucks' in train carriages with strangers. Over the course of Fear of Flying, she sleeps with hundreds of men. By our society's standards, she'd be 'a slut', 'a whore', 'a loose woman'. And yet, in Jong's eyes, she's merely human. She rides through the novel on a roller coaster of the same emotions that all of us, women and men, feel. Isadora is no worse than all the sleazy More...

0 comments like

Mar 19, 2011

Sarah rated it:

20 million copies sold? A seminal feminist classic? I am nothing short of incredulous. I'd say it was the pseudo-intellectual self-absorbed ramblings of a spoilt 29-year-old 'poet' that does not stand the test of time.

But let me first say, I'm not one to dole out 1* reviews. This is my first, and as an author myself, I've wondered what can motivate a reader to such an action. But now, thank you Erica, I have seen the light! It's when the distance between the reader's expectations and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2010

Amy rated it:

For some reason it seemed to take me forever to read this book – I’m not sure why, it just felt my progress was really slow, even though I enjoyed the book as a whole.

In particular, I think she has a certain skill for pithy one-liners (“Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man”) and a witty - although self-indulgent - writing style (at least in this book) which I found I could enjoy, whilst simultaneously hoping I was not at all like the central character, Isa More...

0 comments like

Jul 06, 2010

Cheryl added it

I am embarrassed to say that I just got around to reading Fear of Flying. I know, I know. In '73 when it came out, it was lauded as one of the greatest works of literature of all time, and it is. It was one of the first books to explore the feminist psyche in such an unapologetic way, and one of the first to do so written in the style of a fictional memoir. However, I wouldn't have really been able to relate to it as deeply in my Twenties, but now that I am well into my Forties and have one div More...

0 comments like

May 25, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Erica Jong's Fear of Flying is a masterpiece. Her heroine, Isadora Wing, captures the essence of every woman in so many ways. Isadora throws herself into her relationships and over-analyzes them like all women. She has needs and wants and desires and feels guilty and yet and NOT guilty for having them. Jong has captured what is truely like to be a woman with her character, and the duality of our exsistence.

I think this book will speak to women in different ways. (And that, by the way More...

0 comments like

Jan 01, 2011

Lauren rated it:

Every kind of independence. Not for everyone, but liberating and identifiable. Go there.

I don't consider myself a radical feminist, (although dare to tell me I can't or shouldn't carry something because I'm a woman, I guarantee you there'll be hell to pay and I'll find a mistake in your grammar to boot), and, while this book was a radical book when it was published, I think Jong addresses issues that are not only revolutionary but also universally relevant (timeless and genderless). More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 25, 2011

Emily rated it:

**This review is just for me. For a real review, see elsewhere**

I loved this book. I know that this was a huge game-changer in the 70s and that everyone woman needed to read it - which I would still agree with the second part. I'm not sure if the book applies that much to women now, since I don't feel as conflicted about leaving the home for work, not having kids, or being single as Isadora Wing seems to feel. I also don't have conflicting relationships with my family or need to go to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2009

Robyn rated it:

Yes, there is a great irony to reading this book while living in Europe, accompanying one's husband on his own professional journey, and being nearly the same age as the protagonist (and sharing some--but by no means all-- of her neuroses and life experiences. As my husband said, "[I:] flew through that book," but I have to say that I liked it far better at the beginning than the end, finding myself identifying more with the staid, responsible husband than flighty Isadora. And perhaps More...

0 comments like

Jun 16, 2008

Sarah rated it:

This is considered one of the seminal second-wave feminist novels, and I can see why. It’s the story of a woman who is trying to analyze her life to see why certain things (relationships especially) went wrong. The novel follows her as she sorts through her guilt, her sexual appetites, her relationship with her family and her many years of psychoanalysis. Plus, she uses awesome 70’s slang like “bread.”

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2010

Valerie rated it:

The most positive thing I have to say about Erica Jong is that she has been very very lucky in regards to her career. Good for her. I found Fear of Flying to be a tragic and unreadable piece of, er, literature. What's inspiring about Erica is that if she can so successfully publish crap like this, then I have a hell of a chance at a damn good future as an author. At least I can tell a coherent story.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Lori added it

Loved it! Dated-yes. Groundbreaking-for it's time and for ours. Jong pulls alot of her own life's material into creating Isadora and her story. I think people miss the point if they focus on the sexual details-by today's standards these are not risque. The bigger conflict has to do with how women perceive themselves and their work and how they value it themselves. Even today, women can claim they have won the battle of the sexes but this victory is still elusive. Women bear the burdens o More...

0 comments like

May 15, 2010

Naomi rated it:

I am having a difficult time getting through this book. I can appreciate the sexual frankness and honesty, and how groundbreaking this must have been in the 1970s. Nowadays, however, this is much more prevalent and therefore less shocking. Maybe if I hadn't recently read An Unquiet Mind, I would better appreciate the forays in psychoanalysis but I can't avoid comparing the two books on this front and I find Fear of Flying less engaging. I have to keep reminding myself that Isadora is in her tw More...

0 comments like

Nov 07, 2011

Leah rated it:

So this book was written back in the 70s and has lived on with just as much acclaim as it received back then. The book is about a young woman, Isodora Wing, who is very confused about her life. She was married, got divorced, married again to a therapist, then she cheated on him, then she left the guy she cheated with and met some other guys, then she returns back to her husband and the book ends there, leaving the reader to decide the fate of the couple. The struggles she faces in terms of ch More...

0 comments like

Sep 19, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Erica creates almost an anti-heroine in this book. Isadora Wing is a Jewish American Princess, native New Yorker, & has the market on guilt cornered. She's a poet & a writer, married to her second husband Bennett, a shrink she married shortly after her first marriage to Brian was annulled. Brian had a psychotic break, tried to strangle her, & was moved to a private mental institution in California. Her family is quixotic, radical, & also artistic, everything that Bennett is not. Her adventu More...

0 comments like

Sep 16, 2011

Vita rated it:

To be honest, I can't believe I haven't read this book before. While the content is nothing shocking to a middle aged women in the year 2011, it was no doubt SCANDALOUS in the 1970s. To me, it reads as a cross between a feminist manifesto and a quite accurate reflection of what goes on in a modern women's head as she contemplates her place in the world and how men actually view and interact with us. I am aware that my early adoption of motherly and wifely commitments postponed what I view now as More...

0 comments like