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.

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.

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.

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.

Witty, smart, eloquent.

Her own life, she means. Jong still whining about men and then running to them.

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.

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.

This book reads more like the diary of a sex addict than a traditional novel. Marital sex, adulterous sex, friends-with-benefits sex, lesbian sex, self-gratification sex, group sex, revenge sex, make-up sex… It is all here, and, quite frankly, some of it is rather repulsive.

Not that there is anything wrong with writing about sex, but a successful novel is both style and substance, and unless you are writing the Kama Sutra, it helps to have an interesting story line to go along with it.

Despite the plethora of four-letter words that jump out at you from every page, I do give the author credit for her lively and imaginative writing style, and I wish I could say the same for the novel's substance.

The narrator is a smart, talented writer trapped in a joyless marriage to an uncommunicative, anal-retentive, cheating husband. Isadora contemplates leaving her husband, but fear, self-doubt, and a lingering sense of loyalty toward her husband prevent her from ending the marriage and going it alone as a single woman. Meanwhile, she spends much of her time hopping from bed to bed seeking fulfillment in the arms of multiple sex partners until finally she meets the man of her dreams, who supplies the physical and emotional support---both in and out of bed---that is lacking in her marriage. All of this is vaguely reminiscent of the Twentieth Century novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was considered obscene in its day and later dubbed a literary masterpiece. It takes an extraordinary talent to pull this off, and Erica Jong, while a gifted poet and novelist, is no D.H. Lawrence.

The concept of a woman unable to find fulfillment except through the love of a man is nothing new, and it is one that might set the teeth of feminists on edge. If this is the only way for a woman to "save her own life", I think I would rather be dead.

i literally could not get through this book it’s so incredibly self indulgent and obviously a vomit pile of narcissism on the part of the author with pages upon pages of shitty and meandering stream of consciousness prose on the part of the main character that does nothing to propel the plot or character development. it’s an insult to literature and feminism and queerness all in one however-many-paged steaming mound of unreadable garbage.

I can't get enough of Erica Jong. It surprises me sometimes that this was written in the 70's and yet I feel she touches something inside of me several decades later. I particularly appreciated this book more than fear of flying, because as she says so herself, she takes a much more optimistic approach at love, an idea she might have turned me onto.

Inizialmente fastidioso per via delle volgarità e della storia in sé, apparentemente banale (moglie insoddisfatta desidera evasione), si è rivelato pagina dopo pagina un gioiello che non voglio nemmeno definire femminista, visto che alcune femministe lo hanno criticato. Credo sia un libro che dovrebbero leggere tutte le donne, affinché si liberino non tanto di mariti indigesti quando di convinzioni errate e sensi di colpa. Le pagine migliori, secondo me, riguardano le dritte su come salvarsi la vita: eliminando i sensi di colpa, sì, ma anche e soprattutto, preparandosi ad avere 87 anni.