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How to Save Your Own Life

erica jong anthony burgess

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Erica Jong--like Isadora Wing, her fictional doppelganger--was rich and famous, brainy and beautiful, and soaring high with erotica and marijuana in 1977, the year this book was first published. Erica/Isadora are the perfect literary and libidinous guides for those readers who want to learn about-or just be reminded of-the sheer hedonistic innocence of the time. "How to Save Your Own Life" was praised by "People" for being "shameless, sex-saturated and a joy," and hailed by Anthony Burgess as one of the ninety-nine best novels published in English since 1939.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1977

This edition

Format
336 pages, Paperback
Published
July 6, 2006 by Tarcher
ISBN
9781585424993
ASIN
B001G8WL0M
Language
English
Characters More characters

More editions

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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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
MerienV
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I picked up this book at Shakespeare in company in the one dollar pile outside the store, Paris France. Safe to say for the rest of my trip, this book was glued to my hip. I loved it from the instant I picked it up so much so I was dreading turning the pages as it came to a close. The ending was resolute and ended with some poetry which made Isadora completely come alive. This book is a hidden treasure.
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perform
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I just read this book on a flight from London to NY and I felt like I'd somehow entered a time machine instead of a plane. From the first page you are whisked back to the late 1970's in all its hairy, sex-fueled glory: Waterbeds! Ferns! Musk oil! Furry chests with gold chains! And more caftans than I can count. Is this book a piece of classic literature? No. But if you feel like wading into a hazier, mellower time frame where people believed in analysis and astrology in equal measure, this book is a treat to be savored like valium and red wine.
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punishedsneed
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I've just finished How to Save Your Own Life, sever years after having read Fear of Flying.
Reading it has been a massive throwback into Isadora's life, into the 70s, into edonism.
It has felt a bit out of time reading it now, but extremely fascinating nonetheless. It's a catching read, fast paced and well written. Highly enjoyable!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Shrabster
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Before I met with Book Club the other week, I'd have given this one star. But talking it over and realizing that Jong and this novel are, without question, a product of their political context made me realize that it has merit as a piece of history if not as a successful piece of fiction (or of writing in general).

Why did I find it unsuccessful, you ask? Because the narrator is a whining, pretentious, and wholly unlikable specimen of a human being and of a woman. I am, even after talking to the BC, irritated that she is even in part representative of an era of women's literature. I've never read the word "cunt" so much and after the first fifty times it kind of loses its shock factor. And then it just sounds dumb. And like Jong is trying way, way, way, way too hard.

Why else didn't I like it? Oh, because the plot is non-existent and although the protagonist seems to feel that there is a lot at stake, to me there didn't seem to be anything. She doesn't change or evolve as a character and I found the entire trial pretty dull.

But the BC girls say to read Fear of Flying first to lay the groundwork for the marital relationship at the heart of this book. So do that, and then read this one at your own risk.
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mentaza
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Huge thanks to Bei from Agora for asking me to join the blog tour for 'How To Save Your Own Life' by Erica Jong, republished in time for International Women's Day 2021. This is a day to highlight inequality and issues that affect women, including domestic violence and FGM (female genital mutilation) as well as recognising that we still exist in a patriarchal society that centers men .

If you don't believe me, check out Twitter where transwomen and trans allies have hijacked the day in a manner that not only undermines the message of #IDW21, it undermines the actual experiences of both sets of people and benefits neither.

Erica Jong was a mover and trailblazer in being frankly open and honest about her need to be sexually liberated and that it might not be the job of just one person to fulfil that goal. Her honest discussions of sex might be offputting for some-the words used and flittered throughout this book are not for everyone, it might seem outrageous for a woman to be reclaiming the word c***, but remember, this was first published nearly 40 years ago. Women speaking out loudly their rights to sexual and reproductive freedom was a relatively new arena of social consciousness supported by the Contraceptive Pill and Abortion Act of 1968 so this was actually quite revolutionary.

I first read her semi-autobiographical novel, 'Fear Of Flying' as a teen becoming aware of the vast difference in opportunities between women and men. It seemed thrilling, out there and completely wonderful and sat alongside copies of Fay Weldon's books, Marilyn French's seminal 'The Women's Room' and De Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex'

So I went online to see what modern women think of Erica's writing style and her subjects and was overwhelmingly met with scorn, derision and accusations of selfishness by reviewers.

What this reader felt on reading 'How To Save Your Own Life' , was a freshness of style, a freedom not impinged upon by societal mores and a frankness about sex that is often lacking in today's novels. It plunges you into a stream of consciousness which takes you on a journey of discovery wherein the person responsible for your life, your wellbeing and rescuing yourself is you.

Responsibility for your happiness should not lie in the palms of others hands and when she is railing against the institution of marriage and the men she has been yoked to, she is railing at herself to break free and reclaim her life. Her voyages of experimentation in the bedroom-and out of it, and pretty much everywhere-are breathtakingly free. She becomes the person she wants to be and is both the prince and  sleeping beauty being woken. And for this, I revelled in the descriptions, the language, the whole ballsiness of the narrative and I loved it. And in a time where the word 'woman' is seen as dirty, and being 'claimed' by men as 'womxn', where 'be kind' is the new version of 'sit down and shut up', we need fresh voices like this more than ever.
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Mr_Miner
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Fortsetzung des Bestsellers "Angst vorm Fliegen".
Die Ich-Erzählerin Isidora Wing ist inzwischen eine erfolgreiche Schriftstellerin. Aber leider recht unglücklich. In dem Roman geht es offenbar in erster Linie darum, wie sie sich dem Ende ihrer Ehe entgegenquält.
Ach ja, ne Menge Sex scheint es später auch noch zu geben.
Nach 30 Seiten war nicht zu übersehen, dass ich hier fehl am Platz war.
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