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Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir

erica jong

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Seducing the Demon has introduced Erica Jong to readers who hadn't been born when Fear of Flying was published in 1973. Now one of her finest works of nonfiction -and a New York Times bestseller-is back in print with a new afterword.

In Fear of Fifty, a New York Times bestseller when first published in 1994, Erica Jong looks to the second half of her life and "goes right to the jugular of the women who lived wildly and vicariously through Fear of Flying" (Publishers Weekly), delivering highly entertaining stories and provocative insights on sex, marriage, aging, feminism, and motherhood. "What Jong calls a midlife memoir is a slice of autobiography that ranks in honesty, self-perception and wisdom with [works by] Simone de Beauvoir and Mary McCarthy," wrote the Sunday Times (U.K.). "Although Jong's memoir of a Jewish American princess is wittier than either."

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1994

This edition

Format
352 pages, Paperback
Published
September 7, 2006 by Tarcher
ISBN
9781585425242
ASIN
1585425249
Language
English

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About the author

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erica jong

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Erica Jong—novelist, poet, and essayist—has consistently used her craft to help provide women with a powerful and rational voice in forging a feminist consciousness. She has published 21 books, including eight novels, six volumes of poetry, six books of non-fiction and numerous articles in magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times, the Sunday Times of London, Elle, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.

In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (which has sold twenty-six million copies in more than forty languages), she introduced Isadora Wing, who also plays a central part in three subsequent novels—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman's Blues. In her three historical novels—Fanny, Shylock's Daughter, and Sappho's Leap—she demonstrates her mastery of eighteenth-century British literature, the verses of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek lyric, respectively. A memoir of her life as a writer, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, came out in March 2006. It was a national bestseller in the US and many other countries. Erica's latest book, Sugar in My Bowl, is an anthology of women writing about sex, has been recently released in paperback.

Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.

Her works have appeared all over the world and are as popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries as they have been in the United States and Western Europe. She has lectured, taught and read her work all over the world.

A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica's archival material was acquired by Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers' archives.

Calling herself “a defrocked academic,” Ms. Jong has partly returned to her roots as a scholar. She has taught at Ben Gurion University in Israel, Bennington College in the US, Breadloaf Writers' Conference in Vermont and many other distinguished writing programs and universities. She loves to teach and lecture, though her skill in these areas has sometimes crowded her writing projects. “As long as I am communicating the gift of literature, I'm happy,” Jong says. A poet at heart, Ms. Jong believes that words can save the world.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 64 votes)
5 stars
21(33%)
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29(45%)
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64 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Lolight123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I really wanted to like this book. Got 1/3 of the way through and set it aside. The writing doesn't flow well at all and is repetitive. While there are some great thoughts and a bit of humor, it's just too bloated with subpar writing.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
GfNitro
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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سيرة ذاتية مليئة بالثرثرة و تفاصيل التفاصيل كان يمكن ان تختصر الى 300 صفحة بدل 500 صفحة
تحدثت كثيرا عن النسوية و مناصرة المراة و الكثير الكثير من المغامرات الجنسية المحرمة التى عاشتها ايريكا
تشعر القارئ بالملل من التكرار.
اقيمها نجمتين فقط
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
enix18
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I absolutely love Erica Jong’s voice and perspective. I read her work as if I am listening to the ongoing monologue of a dear and respected friend, but objectively her books are often disjointed and scattered in a way that is hard to follow or comprehend as a cohesive book. She focuses so much of this “memoir” around her sacrifices just to BE a writer, as well as her struggle to reveal herself without a great deal of actual relevations about anyone besides past lovers (and whether they had good or bad sex). Her life can’t have been just what was shared in this book. I would happily have indulged in more of her thoughts or reflections on anything she did, especially the motherhood bits which I enjoyed immensely.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Oh_My
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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A lengthy review will come on my blog. I loved this book. So many great points made.
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Danilordzz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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لا تقرأ الكتاب قبل قراءة مؤلفات الكاتبة، لن تحبه سوى بذلك على الأغلب، إيريكا يونغ تملك في عتمة نفسها بصيصًا من الخير الإنساني الرفيع ولا تغتر بخلاعتها أحيانًا فهي من وراء ذلك إنسانًا إنساني بحق
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Tonitonichopchop
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Could not complete. I read 50% then gave up - an extremely rare occurrence. I found the writing superficial and self indulgent.
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