Typical Boomer nonsense with a few moments of real clarity.

I would have to agree with Susan Cheever that this is the best book about being a woman I have ever read. I seem to be devouring the memoirs of women of a certain age, as they keep me from total panic over my impending birthday. Here's a little nugget I liked:

Part of us wants to love like the goddesses--
coldly and capriciously. Part of us owes
allegiance to Kali, eating her lover and
attaching his skull to her waist. Part of us
wants to love like Juno, scooping up mortal men,
toying with them, then letting them go, turning
them, in parting, into caves for the sea to crash
through, great phallic stones, or even, if we are
merciful, swine. Part of us wants to be Athena and
Diana--who need no lovers, who have intellect and
marksmanship instead.

Funny, heartbreaking, honest and extremely well-written.

It was really fun to read this book immediately after reading Fear of Flying, and get the story behind the story. A rich and leisurely autobiography by a gifted writer dedicated to her work. She was born in 1942, and this was published in 1994.

Don't bother.

My copy of Jong's first memoir is completely highlighted in pink because so much of what she says echoes my own experience. On page 13 she describes the effect of emotional tyranny in her life,
"No complaints. Everyone needs something to shape a complicated character. Tyranny was the forcethat crteated my love of liberty, my identification with the underdog, my passion for the rights of man-and woman."

She also says, "We (women) must learn to be whole creatures in order to make women's freedom a nateural part of our society. It is up to us to claim that territory. men cannot do it for us. It is not their mountain to climb. We must learn to love and support each other without demanding ideological conformity"

The book is also an easy fun read full of interesting stories about coming of age in the feminist culture of the late 60's and early 70"s.

I bought this book at Women & Kids First during a time in my life I would rather not remember. Meeting her in person for the first time is my only wonderful memory from that epoch.

I haven't read any of Jong's other books and I don't know I'd want to. Probably a strange thing to do; read her memoir of sorts and not really have idea of who she is or what she's written but recently I was going through my bookshelves and was disgusted at how many books I own that I haven't yet read. Jong's "Fear of Fifty" being one of them. So before I get to read one of my tasty new books that are sitting on my nightstand, I had to force myself to read one of the neglected ones on my shelves, so I read this.

I did agree with most of what she had to say, and some of it made me giggle or nod my head with glee. Things such as, "Men are very simple creatures. Feed 'em, fuck 'em, but withhold the keys to the castle. Territorial to the core, they're sweetest when they don't park their shoes under the bed." She screwed a lot of dudes, got what she wanted and sent them home to their wives. I dig that. Or maybe I dig her admtting that.

Anyway, I'm one page from finishing and she mentions something about taking pills "last year" to curb her appetite and lose weight. I wish I'd read more of her inner tortures and failings instead of having to hear about who's she was banging or how much she loves writing, blah blah, I neglected my daughter to write, I love writing, I would die without writing, I am a writer hear me roar. Boring. And I hate her poetry, it's shit. I wish she hadn't peppered her boring text with her sappy lame poems, it hurt my head. Jong, you aren't Nin, or anywhere near being anyone of that calibre. Thank fuck you didn't call yourself "Erica Orlando" as threatened in the pages of this book, I would have disliked you even more. I mean, love or hate Woolf but she was still ten times the tortured genius that Jong is.

But she's sometimes funny, like when she brought her daughter Molly home, she writes that her dog "Poochkin left turds of outrage in the corners of every room." Turds of outrage! That's some funny shit right there. Maybe I'd had too many wines when I underlined that with an ecstatically, wobbly line but still. Turds of outrage! Poochkin, you're my hero!

She seemed a bit vapid, self-obsessed and high-and-mighty. She name dropped. She thought everything was a phallic symbol (pens, drawings of snakes, the list goes on), she talked about "fatties" condescendingly. If I could be arsed, I'd write a more critical analysis but as it stands, she rubbed me the wrong way for too many little reasons. This review is as shallow as her shitty memoir. What am I trying to say.

I think she wanted to be a tortured genius artist/poet/writer and just kind of failed. Is this too harsh a judgment considering I've never read her other books? Regardless, her memoir sucked so I'm judging her on that. == I like memoirs but tend to only fall in love when the person is actually interesting. Or genuinely fucked up. Or has something unique to say. Jong failed in all regards.

Very thought-provoking.

لا أنصح بقراءة هذا الشىء إطلاقا وأطلقت علية الشيئ لاننى لا أعرف ماذا أسمية
لقد حاولت على مدى 500 صفحة أن أكون موضوعيا وأتناسى أن هذة الافكار الشاذة والمسمومة قد يقصد بها شيئ ما قد يكون ذا نفع ما ولكننى لم أجد
هذا العمل مليئ بالافكار الشاذة والالفاظ الجنسية الصريحة ووصف العلاقات الجنسية الخاصة بالمؤلفة وقرأت إسم المترجم واريد ان أسالة ماذا استفدت من ترجمة هذا العمل سوى نشر هذة الافكار المسمومة التى لا تمت بصلة الى مجتمعنا
المؤلفة تتباهى بوصف علاقاتها الجنسية رغم إعتراض بنتها وكل من حولها بان هذا خطأ على حد قول المؤلفة
يوجد تناقض فى شخصية المؤلفة فى أول الكتاب كانت تهاجم فكرة الامومة وعندما انجبت بنتها تحول كثير من اهتامها الى بنتها رغم اعترافها ان بنتها والانجاب يعترض مع عملها فى التأليف والشعر الذى محتواة جنسى
يحتوى الكتاب على حشو لا يربط الموضوع بصلة
عندما قرأت عنوان الكتاب افترضت ان مؤلف هذا العمل يتحدث عن هذة الازمة وكيفة حلها والعبور منها بسلام
لكن كان جل تفكير المؤلفة انها لن تحظى سوى القليل من العلاقات الجنسية نظرا لتجتاوزها هذا العمر
لم أستطع أن أقف على موضوع واحد فتارة تتحدث عن حياتها الخاصة (الجنسية)
وتارة على اضهاد من حولها والعالم أجمع لدينها على حد قولها لانها يهودية
وتارة تتكلم عن المرأة والحركات النسوية
ولقد أجبرت نفسى على القراءة حتى آخر صفحة لاننى كنت منتظرا منها توضيح لما سردتة الذى لايوجد بينهم أى صلة
لا أنصح بقراءة هذا الكتاب مطلقا ولقد حفظت اسم المؤلفة إريكا يونج حتى اذا صادفت عمل لها ان أتمهل وأعيد التفكير وانصح الجميع بهذا أيضا
فليس كل عمل مترجم يجب أن نأخذ بة وننتبة لما بين السطور
Ibook

I have had this book on my shelf for so many years and I finally read it. It was written 24 years ago and shows it's age.

عادة ما تكون السير المركبة الخاوية من الروح ما هي الا انعكاسات لتجارب خاوية ، مملة , مبتذلة
للتجربة التاريخية عندما قاربت الكاتبة عمر ها الذي ناهز الخمسين تجارب الفئران الثرية ، القامعة بالملذات والتأريخ الثقافي المشحون بهمة النفوذ... تاريخ عاهر وسيرة ماجنة لا تساوي ثمن الورق الذي طبعت فيه

Feminismo burgués, da la sensación de que la Erica Jong no diferencia entre sexo y poder