book data
1866 ratings, 3.45 average rating, 241 reviews
(more data...)
edit
published
March 1986
(first published 1973)
by Plaza & Janes Editories Sa
binding
Paperback
isbn
8401490804
(isbn13: 9788401490804)
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
friend reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2379)
All ratings
|
5 stars (351)
|
4 stars (509)
|
3 stars (620)
|
2 stars (241)
|
1 star (81)
|
avg 3.45
recommended to Jessica by:
i'm not so sure anyone did....
recommends it for: zipless fuckers?
recommends it for: zipless fuckers?
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 int...more
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 int...more
Like this review?
yes
(8 people liked it)
26 comments
Read in June, 2008
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
Like this review?
yes
(4 people liked it)
5 comments
Read in March, 2007
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...more
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...more
Like this review?
yes
(3 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in June, 2008
recommended to Megan by:
my grandmother, second-wave feminismrecommends it for: iconoclastic women, women who wish they were iconoclastic
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 teenager, would...more
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 teenager, would...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
Read in April, 2006
recommends it for:
Everyone. Except snobs.
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
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
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
6 comments
Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
women & men, soul searchers, travelers, lovers, haters, neurotics, therapists, 70's nostalgics
Everybody says she's nostalgic. The book is outdated. Nobody in his/her right mind would even dare have a zipless fuck nowadays--not with all the diseases running around out there.
But I don't know. I'm 35, newly separated, desperate to see the world, and so I think an Adrian Goodlove might not be such a bad idea for me right now.
But then, that's just me: a wannabe hippy; free love; and all that jazz.
If nothing else, it's an adventure into the mindset of a confused, free spirit of the...more
But I don't know. I'm 35, newly separated, desperate to see the world, and so I think an Adrian Goodlove might not be such a bad idea for me right now.
But then, that's just me: a wannabe hippy; free love; and all that jazz.
If nothing else, it's an adventure into the mindset of a confused, free spirit of the...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
women, men, writers, people who see analysts, people who have thought about seeing analysts
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 gets really...more
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 gets really...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
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. <i> Fear of Flying <i> 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 real...more
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 real...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2007
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
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
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.”
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Wow. Those who are sensitive to language, beware. Taken in a time context, this is a truly ground-breaking book. Talk about womens' lib! P.S. The book has nothing to do with planes.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in November, 2006
sometimes all we need once in a while is a zipless fuck.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 1983
I read this book when I was about eighteen - DECADES ago - I think it is famous for coining the phrase "zipless f*ck" - remember these books came out in the seventies - they were life altering - women did not read books like this - words that Erica used were used by only a select few - this was before MTV before everything was sexualized - today they have entire sections in barnes and noble dedicated to erotic fiction - Ms. Erica was out there leading the pack - she opened eyes and mi...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I read this book after buying it for $3 from the uni Co-Op Bookshop. I wasn't sure what to expect, but my mum read it first and said it was good, so I thought I'd enjoy it too. Turns out I was right - I did enjoy it!
Erica Jong was quite young (early 20s or something) when she wrote this book, and it was published in what, 1973? But as I read the book I found that I could totally relate to it (not that I was married or anything, but I could relate to the character Isadora's emotional/physical...more
Erica Jong was quite young (early 20s or something) when she wrote this book, and it was published in what, 1973? But as I read the book I found that I could totally relate to it (not that I was married or anything, but I could relate to the character Isadora's emotional/physical...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I can't write a solid, unbiased, or worldly review of this book (or of any book really) and while I initially thought about not comparing the main character to myself, my own circumstance and my own relentless hunger-thump, I can't think of an honest alternative. I also can't think of one person in my knowing who would enjoy this book as much as I did. I understand, even empathize with, the bevy of disgruntled Amazon customers, men and women alike, who label the main character as "whiny, hy...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I wish I could have a more natural visceral reaction to this book but I read it from a state of being all too aware of it's controversy and place in feminism and time. I wish I had discovered a dusty copy in a grandmother's attic or untouched corner of a used bookstore because that is really how it should be read... a discovery filled with self discovery.... but I went out looking for it. It had been mentioned too many times as an example and I had to read it for myself. I did instantly feel a...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Nobody
I absolutely hated this book. It was well written but the subject matter bored me to tears. I totally wanted to strangle the main character Isadora at least a thousand times. The whole reason I read this book was because it was a "classic" and thought I should try it. Well what a waste of money. I have no clue why it's considered a classic. I mean maybe I just didn't get it, I am not that into feminism and all that junk anyway. Maybe if I had read it when it first came out (if I was al...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
This book may have been earth-shattering when it was published in 1973, but these days there are many more books on the shelves about neurotic women who want to escape their unhappy marriages through sex with other men -- many of them better-written, too, I'm sure. Not to mention that the main character (Isadora Wing) is a near-transparent stand-in for Erica Jong herself, with the end result that the cascade of Isadora's fantasies and complexes has the reader saying "oh no, that's too much...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1974
My mother and Erica Jong are roughly the same age, so over the past 35 years as I remember sneaking into the basement paperback stack to peruse this cult classic, my responses become deeply Oedpial. In the end, this book deserves respect for what it accomplished in the mid-70s: it gave many women who didn't identify with the feminist generation a story to identify with and to rethink what they had previously been taught about feminine sexuality (which, for many of them, was a nothing). If the bo...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1976
The best kiss-and-tell book ever? You feel that Erica Jong is giving you all the steamy details on her quite interesting private life over a bottle or three of good wine. Luckily, as it's all been written down, you don't have to worry about not being able to come up with a better reply than "Uh... really!?" when you get to a particularly jaw-dropping incident. She doesn't write as well as she thinks she does (literary pretentions), but still not badly at all.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
to-read
(on 324 people's shelves)
fiction (on 81 people's shelves)
currently-reading (on 78 people's shelves)
1001 (on 13 people's shelves)
feminism (on 10 people's shelves)
own (on 10 people's shelves)
1001-books-to-read-before-you-die (on 8 people's shelves)
classics (on 8 people's shelves)
general-fiction (on 7 people's shelves)
favorites (on 7 people's shelves)
More shelves...
fiction (on 81 people's shelves)
currently-reading (on 78 people's shelves)
1001 (on 13 people's shelves)
feminism (on 10 people's shelves)
own (on 10 people's shelves)
1001-books-to-read-before-you-die (on 8 people's shelves)
classics (on 8 people's shelves)
general-fiction (on 7 people's shelves)
favorites (on 7 people's shelves)
More shelves...