Thank you NetGalley for the galley of How To Save Your Own Life in exchange for an honest review.

I personally love women writing essays. This book (fiction) reads as such an authentic first person narrative you forget it's fiction for a while. The chapters are raw, vulnerable, honest and very uncensored. It reads like what Sex and the City would've looked like in the 80s with some more panache, and if Carrie was a better writer. The major issues for me lie in the second wave feminist approach of the whole book, the highly unreliable storytelling and the casual use of triggering subjects (the holocaust, rape, sexual abuse, gaslighting) for impact. The poems at the end were a little lackluster as well, though I generally like the turn the book takes. Quite satisfying after having been through 300 pages of restless narration.

The sequel to Fear of Flying, this is a barely fictionalized telling of the author's decision to leave her husband of eight years in the sex-happy '70s. In it she demonizes him and rationalizes herself and visits her friends to complain and have sex and generally comes off as immature and hypocritical. The writing is first-drafty and unremarkable; she mostly seems like a talkative type who types. Still, it's entertaining in the way reading through someone's diary could be, the scenes are lively, and somehow it's hard to put down until you finish it, even when your eyes are rolling.

well, after fear of flying, it was a let down, frankly. though it is hard to imagine any sequel of that masterpiece not being somewhat disappointing...
jong is a brilliant, insightful, articulate and funny author...

Worden ze eigenlijk nog geschreven, dit soort feministische romans over vrouwen die van alles te zeuren hebben over mannen, maar ondertussen wel de hele dag met ze bezig zijn? En in het geval van Jong ook bezig in de zin van seks. Het liefst de hele dag rampetampen, en o shit, er moet ook nog gewerkt worden. Laten we er nog een paar schuttingwoorden tegenaan gooien. Lekker direct en 'in your face'. Jammer hoor, want eigenlijk kan ze best heel aardig schrijven.

One of the best books ever written. Part memoir, part stream of consciousness, part self help, part novel, but all written with a humanness and a wit that’s mesmerising.

I can't stop with the Erica Jong. My husband has access to all of the Oregon University Libraries through inter-library loan and he has gotten me most of them. This one is really good. It's about falling apart and putting yourself back together again. I found it affirming that someone can utilize their own words and wisdom to get themselves out of a bad situation. Yeah, there was a lot of sex and drugs, but it was a delightful read!

This was ok. I don't recommend it though. Maybe because it dealt with women's issues that were more relevent at the time of the writing? It was the first Erica Jong book I've ever read, and though I don't think it's trash, I am not impressed either.

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. ...it's actually better than all the love songs, all the silly movies say ti is. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

This one is worse than Fear of Flying. I was curious to find some growth or maturity but found only stagnation. Unhappiness, shallowness, never thinking beyond step 1 and extreme selfishness are constant staples of this 'biograhical' story. Gives 'feminazis' a bad name.

Heard so much about Jong, but never read her. Her book is no longer shocking or revolutionary, which should hardly be surprising given it was published the year I was born. But what is depressing is how this book could be written now with very little changes and still be very topical and true. How far we have yet to come despite the years.

Amazing. #280916

She is a very serious book author, for how, "out of touch" the concepts of her books are... "A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive." is one of my favorite quotes from Erica Jong :)