Product Description

Originally published in 1973, this uninhibited story of Isadora Wing was a national sensation: fueling fantasies, igniting debates, and even introducing a notorious new phrase to the English language. In The New York Times, Henry Miller compared it to his own classic Tropic of Cancer, predicting, "This book will make literary history, that because of it women are going to find their own voice and give us great sagas of sex, life, joy, and adventure." It went on to sell more than twelve million copies. Today, Fear of Flying is a classic--a timeless tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40983 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-04
• Released on: 2003-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
A stirring book of fable and fantasy...outrageously readable. -- Fay Weldon

An amazing tour de force. (Cosmopolitan )

An amazing tour de force. -- Cosmopolitan

Erica Jong can write a historical novel that both honors its tradition with affectionate parody and creates its own full fictional reality. (New York Times Book Review )

Fresh, innovative, ingenious...moving. The imagination of the poet she essentially is strikes deep. I recommend it with all my heart. (Anthony Burgess )

Fresh, innovative, ingenious...moving. The imagination of the poet she essentially is strikes deep. I recommend it with all my heart. -- Anthony Burgess

About the Author
Erica Jong is the author of twenty books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. Her most recent essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review. Currently working on a novel featuring Isadora Wing, the heroine of Fear of Flying, as a woman of a certain age, Erica lives with her husband in New York City and Connecticut.

From AudioFile
Erica Jong's first novel was published in 1973, when she was 30. It sold millions of copies and was considered revolutionary, ground-breaking, and shocking. Now, it's just the often funny adventures of freethinking, freewheeling, sexually obsessed Isadora Wing. Hope Davis gives her just the right prickly edginess as Isadora philosophizes and fantasizes her way through husbands, lovers, and one meaningless-if-pleasurable erotic encounter after another. Isadora wallows in the depths of the male/female sexual relationship, and while she gets tiresome, often tasteless, Hope Davis never does. Her reading is fresh, inventive, and sincere. Her Isadora is wry, funny, abrasive, crude, and smart. A socially significant book and a terrific performance by Davis make this worth a listen. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Powerful Novel Retains Its Place in History.
I get a little peeved when I read some reviews of this novel passing it off as some sort of salacious, "Peyton Place"-ish trifle meant to shock midwestern Americans. The truth is, over thirty years since its appearance, that the reviews Henry Miller and John Updike offered were no less than prophetic. The book is a genuine work of literary art and craft, frank but necessarily so in the same way "Lady Chatterley's Lover" was. Jong's style is compelling; her opinions, questions, and searches for her character's validations are no less valuable today. Perhaps a good portion of people were in a more open state of mind in the early seventies, more willing to experiment with lifestyle, substances, morality, even music and art. But are people today in less need of this kind of open consciousness? One only needs to examine the current political climate to see that we're heading for a revisionist version of McCarthyism. So perhaps the views expressed in "Fear of Flying" bear reexamination.

This book has so many ways to praise it one hardly knows where to begin. But as a man too young to read it in 1973, I am profoundly grateful to Ms. Jong for the opportunity to read and grow with it now and, no doubt, many times in the future (seeing it back in print, I quickly purchased 3 copies to get me through several more planned readings in the coming years). This edition features the new 2002 afterword by the author, which is invaluable. Jong's perspective on the value of the book, its uncertain early history, publishing stats, and humbling effect on the lady herself add to the novel's resonance. This may be told from a much-needed woman's persepective, but I refuse to label it as "women's" or "feminine" lit. This towering work should not be so conveniently monikered. Its far too challenging, and important, for that. How about simply "classic"?

A valuable gift to women everywhere.
I bought this book when I was fourteen because I thought it would be sexy. I scanned the book for dirty parts, then shelved it when I couldn't find anything very steamy and returned to the bodice-rippers under my mom's bed. Many years later, I opened the book as a different person. Married, childless, and still confused about what I should do with my life, Isadora Wing spoke straight to my heart. I laughed at myself when I learned that FOF does have a few sexual encounters, but they tend to be awkward, disappointing, and often uncomfortable. No wonder I didn't notice them when I first thumbed through. I was looking for the descriptions of perfect and seamless couplings found in romance novels, and that sort of language just wasn't there, accept for in Isadora Wing's fantasies about the "zipless f---". Isadora has big ideas, firm convictions, passions, but is often held back with fear and insecurity. The plot of the book is not nearly as important or engaging as Isadora's ruminations on love, sex, hypocrise, and searching for good examples of women to look up to. I think every woman should read this book, especially if she is married and getting just a little bit itchy. If it's really bad, have your husband read it, too.

A thirty year journey that is true today in 2003!!!
I saw the book in one of those big franchise book stores and the cover caught my eye, white with a zipper half unzipped revealing red underneath. Now that I have read "Fear of Flying" the cover seems very symbolic and provacative just like the book.

From the dedication to the afterword I was captivated by this book, a true literary work about a woman seeking self. It is not a chick lit book but true literature. I couldn't beleive I missed this book all my life, I am in my early thirties and had never heard about it but wish I had it starting in my teens.

Every woman, every man should read this book it gives great insight on the insecurities of women. From sentence one I felt like Isadora Zelda White Wing spoke to me of my own doubts and emotional struggles. All of a sudden I was not alone...I was not lost, her journey was mine and mine hers.

This book was about getting your passion back along with your identity, not sex or fantasies as so many want to dwell on. Although she is very candid about her sexual exploits(Isadora's) and the language is very forward but its relevent to the story.

As a woman, I can say that the idea of the zipless f...k has had an appeal but after reading her encounters with Dr. Goodlove you have to re-address your impulses and figure out what you really are looking for. I think that was the true teaching of this book........find out who you really are not what or who defines you.