Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Erica Jong Grows Up
Review: Fear of Fifty is Erica Jong's best book. Fans will recognize all the memorable episodes of her life as she revisits them, this time through the eyes of a wiser woman.

It seems that Erica Jong has finally grown up. Gone is the obsession with sex and the dependence on men that characterized her earlier books. In this book, Ms. Jong comes to terms with the contradictions of her existence, and in so doing, very intelligently points out the wild contradictions of her generation and of our contemporary society.

The best section comes at the end, where Ms. Jong lays out her own personal feminist treatise. This section, although highly theoretical, is endowed with a clarity and passion that should rally every single woman reader, regardless of age, to the cause.

Ms. Jong quite rightly chastises women as well as men for causing and maintaining the feminist backlash. Encouraging harmony, comprehension and unity, she calls for a new feminism that would include all women regardless of class, race, age, sexual orientation or profession. She exalts the creativity and artistic or professional ability of women, as well as their capacity for motherhood and caretaking. In fact, she suggests that the two sides of a woman are complementary rather than imcompatible.

This book really clarified for me the situation of women in our Western society. I highly recommend it to anyone of any age interested in art, culture, literature, history or feminism. Although the content is highly intellectual in some respects, Ms. Jong's entertaining, passionate and humorous voice is always present. And it is absolutely not a "woman's book"; it is vital that as many men as possible read Fear of Fifty.

Rating:
Summary: Ageless Erica
Review: Firstly, let me point out that I am 21 years old, and almost didn't buy the book because I was afraid it would be some paean to "mid-life" that I just wouldn't get. The Jongroupie in me won out, though - and I am SO glad she did.

Anyone who has ever read an Erica novel, anyone who ever plans to, anyone who yearns to hear a profoundly female voice speak honestly yet comfortingly into her/his mind's ear - this is a must-have. Besides answering every "Where does Isadora end and Erica begin?" question, this book contains a good dozen touching poems, countless anecdotes, and the sweetly detailed account of how Erica met her current husband. Erica writes about being a writer, a Jew, a feminist, a scholar, a daughter, a mother, a wife - a WOMAN. It is a novel, I believe, about WOMANHOOD, first and foremost, from the pen of a woman who has seen hell and high water during her 50 years.

Far from being a boring mid-life memoir, the book reads like a novel and a really fun one at that, with all the feminine feminism, the wry jokes, the clever commentary and the juicy sex scenes of Erica's other books. Unlike her novels, however, this book draws the bold authoress out from between the lines and places her right before the reader - beautifully unembellished, womanly, young enough to take another ride on the rollercoaster and old enough to truly appreciate it.

Rating:
Summary: the same old story
Review: I've been reading Erica Jong's books for ages...probably a compulsion of some sort!! I find myself turning & returning to these books from time to time, when I'm feeling strange / down / lonely, because I feel as if I'm reading what an acquaintance or a far-away friend has written. This though doesn't mean that I appreciate all of her books the same, & it also doesn't mean that I think Erica Jong is an excellent writer. I just feel comfortable with her writing for some reason, although god knows why..

About "Fear of fifty": It seems to me that Erica Jong has written the same story, again & again. And again. And again, until frankly anyone, even the most well-intentioned person would get tired of it all. I was certainly enthusiastic about her writing at first. But what I think has happened is this-- beginning with "Fear of flying", & in all the books after that, what she has written really is her life story. As I said- really good & original to read the first time around (that's why "Fear of flying" is still Jong's best-selling book) but tedious after a while.

The heroine of "Fear of flying" seems to be in no way different from the woman shown in "Fear of fifty", & I have no idea why Erica Jong thought she had to write an autobiography. In "Fear of fifty" she just re-wrote the same things she'd already written in other books. I'm sure I'm no exception when I say that I was already familiar with all the themes in the book, & I knew what was coming, all the way through. This is the reason that I found "Fear of fifty" unoriginal & repetitive, although I must say that there was some comfort to be had in returning to these familiar themes. My point is--Erica Jong's ideas are interesting & her writing is (sometimes) inspired. But reading her books has been like eating the same food again & again: the first time around it was tasty. After a while, it got boring.