A graduate of Barnard College with an M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong has thrived as a novelist, poet, and essayist and has consistently used the power of words to provide women with a rationale to stand up for themselves. She has published twenty books, including eight novels, six volumes of poetry, and six books of non-fiction. (Graham, 1997)
Born to a Jewish family in New York City, Erica Jong lacked nothing. Her parents were happily married, her family was doing well financially, and was well respected. She had all luxuries in her hands and her family was rich and influential enough to buy her everything that she wanted. Erica’s mother was an artist and all throughout her childhood she had heard her mother complain that her work would have been more appreciated had she been a man.
It was at this point in time when Erica realized she has to set up and conquer this male-dominated society and this is where she got her sense of feminism. With this feminism, she dealt with male dominance and it is reflected in all her fiction and non-fiction that she has written.
From her life history, one can gather that apart from feminism, the frustration in her writings can also be credited to her life events. Her luck with marriage was not great and she ended up marrying four times, in search of the right man or as she puts it, the perfect soulmate. Her first marriage was at the age of 20 to a man named Michael which lasted a year when he had a breakdown and started thinking of himself as Jesus Christ and was taken away by his parents. Her second marriage was to Alan Jong at the age of 24 in 1996 who was a psychiatrist. After a husband who according to Erica had gone mad, with Alan she thought that he would fix everything.
The marriage lasted eight years when Erica fell in love with Jonathan Fast whom she married in 1978. Unfortunate for her Jonathan also aspired to be a successful writer and was in a way, jealous of Erica and her writing abilities. They ended their marriage after eight years and Jonathan contested guardianship of their only daughter Molly. After 10 years of being alone, traveling back and forth as an internationally renowned writer, Erica tied the final knot with Ken, her fourth and final husband and according to Erica, her soul mate. (Dunea)
Erica began writing as a child and published her first book of poetry, the erotic Fruits and Vegetables, in 1971. Erica over the years, when she published her first book Fear of Flying, which epitomized the sexual liberation of the nation. She has built up a bold body of works, due to which critics have come to recognize her as a writer who writes with candor, wit, and exuberance and who has always stood up for contemporary womanhood illuminating their needs and desires. (New York Times, 1996)
One of the earliest works of Erica Jong, Fear of Flying, and a feminist classic, which swept Erica to fame, is still regarded as one of the most controversial and daring ones, of her works. She is considered famous for her daring and wit and her ability to write on topics that others have considered extremely controversial and have stayed away from. In her novel, Fear of Flying, in particular, Erica Jong has presented certain convincing arguments breaking taboos regarding a woman in her times. For this piece of writing, she has become not only famous but also quite successful.
Published in 1973, as mentioned above, the most appealing part of this novel in my opinion is that it revolves around the self-discovery and liberation of a woman, illustrating how she struggles to find her path in the male-dominated world, where women were usually blamed and punished for their so-called sins, not only in reality but also in fiction. (Darcy).
The story portrays a woman, Isadora Wing, fighting to become her own woman in a male-dominated world, battling her way out of her dismal marriage, trying to break away from the cage of social nepotism, the society has locked her in it and she aims to find liberty and happiness for herself. Lucky for Isadora, she finds herself drawn to Goodlove, a British therapist while on a trip to Vienna with her second husband.
The beauty of Erica’s work is that in the novel, unlike others, Isadora does not find her prince charming through a magical kiss or a glass slipper, instead, she learns from her mistakes and has the courage to listen to her heart, which evoked hope for a lot of women in those times, that they can and should stand up to fight for their desires. In this manner, Erica has earned her success especially because of the touch of reality and a piece of her own self in her writings. (STOKES)
Erica has also written very boldly about sex in this novel, courageously liberating the word “zip’ from its monogamous marriage partner “code”, coining a new word “zipless fuck”, due to which some critics have regarded her novel as pornography. But in my opinion, through this approach, Erica has taken a very daring step at a time where feminism had made little progress, and writers, female ones in particular did not dare to write about sex with such clarity. So even though her work was attacked by critics, Erica chose to ignore the comments and continue writing, which again is a way by which females had hope evoked in them, since her writing was not to be stopped by the critics’ comments. (STOKES)
“This book will make literary history…because of it women are going to find their own voice and give us great sagas of sex, life, joy, and adventure.”
–Henry Miller (Darcy).
Through this book the writer, Erica Jong has put down the woman’s psyche on paper. The book appeals to me emotionally in this sense, that previously women were married off at a very early age when they were not ready to bear the burden of responsibilities that marriage bought along with it, as a result, most of the women ended up divorcing their first spouses. But today, the younger generation, often growing up with troubled and divorced parents has learned their lesson. Erica, therefore, tries to bring out the realistic side of marriage. (Krum)
Another convincing message which Erica sends out through this novel is that unlike the cultural archetype of those times in which women were punished for their sexual passions, her character Isadora Wing, survives in this novel, thus transforming the archetype and making people realize that death is too harsh a punishment for such desires. She has tried to break the double standard women are often held to, that is to be caregivers, both physically and emotionally. (Krum)
There are a great many lessons women can take from this novel, even today, 35 years after the book was originally published whether they are fighting to find a balance in work and love, happiness, or freedom. It is therefore imperative for us to recognize Erica Jong as a woman who had the courage to break taboos through her words.
After starting a sexual revolution through her book “Fear of Fylyin”, Erica Jong moves on to take another bold step in her book “What Do Women Want? Bread, Roses, Sex, Power”. Published in 1998; Erica has once again stirred her audience. Keeping up with her audacious reputation as a writer Erica takes a comprehensive look at the lives of women and their expectations. This book cannot be classified into the convenient categories of fiction or poetry and thus can be regarded as a memoir.
One of the unconvincing aspects of this book is that the title itself poses a very general and open question to all the women out there. However, the book itself narrates the account of one SINGLE woman, the author herself. Although there is nothing wrong with narrating personal experiences in a book, the basic point of criticism is due to the fact that the author has insisted that all the women relate to these events, which in my opinion is ridiculous as the author has failed to address the socio-economic gap which detaches her from the lot.
It is inaccurate in my opinion to think that all women belong to wealthy artistic families and has had the opportunity to vacation in San Francisco or that they have been married four times. Therefore the discrepancy between a privileged and an exclusively female experience and as compared to a middle-class one contributes to an underlying conflict of this book. (Montante)
Among the persuasive arguments presented in the book, I was personally swayed by the section devoted to the relationship between mother and daughter and how a woman evolves in these respective roles. The connection which the author has established between the two roles, one of a mother and the other of a daughter, and the fluid movements which she makes in the mother-daughter dialectic, speaks volumes about her personal insight. In addition, Erica also explains how a woman is torn between these two roles of a mother and a daughter and how her perception of herself at times greatly varies from that of her daughter.
The book “What Do Women Want?”, although sparks some unraised questions, but as one goes through it one realizes that it fails to answer all of them which makes this book an individual account of a woman’s life rather than a representation of the public, which in my opinion is a little disappointing.
In 1973, Erica Jong had ripped open the erotic appetite and wounds of women by taking their inner world public. It was this piece of work that won erica a distinction among the American novelists of the 20th century. And today even after 33 years, that writer who exploded American sexual consciousness can still be recognized through her latest and 20th book “Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life”. An honest accounting of a person’s life quipped with fame and happiness at first and the mothered by depression, alcoholism, failed marriages, and loss of an adored daughter to drug addiction.
After writing Fear of Flying in 1973, each successive novel has been a postscript of the former, and Seducing the Demons is no exception. With Isadora Wing still shouldering her way into the novel, this latest incarnation by Erica seems more forced, less exuberant, and more trapped in time. In the latest novel “Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life” is no longer the voice of the author is no longer filled with energy, desire for independence, and craving for “zipless fuck”. However now the same author who once was in search of true love and adored men has now come to hate them and the only emotion visible in this novel is that of narcissism. Thirty-three years after her revolutionizing book about sex which proved some two and a half dozen translations, her voice in Seducing the Demons has become boring, catty, peeved, and cynical.
Even her characters have become dark and shady, for example, the character “Dart” in the novel Seducing the Demons, who were portrayed as “Bean” in the 1984 novel “Parachutes and Kisses” as a soul mate who treats his woman as gold and never wants to part with her, and supports her through breast cancer in the novel Fear of Fifty has now turned into monster according to the Jong some two decades later. In this novel, Jong has cast Reenter Dart brutally and as a mean, stupid and lecherous fellow. (Nehring). In my opinion, the writer of this novel can not be identified as a woman who was once recognized as the great defender of erotic love.
Another thing which one comes to realize after reading this book is that, unlike old times, like in the 1970s Erica has lost her poise in bringing to the table the topic of sex with stinging candor and sizzling commitment. Today, in her sixties, her sole commitment is to her career and fame and she tries to keep the reader wanting to turn every page with her sordid sex details. But the point she is missing is that after 20 books the reader is now craving for sex details of the past but is looking for the interesting happenings of her present life, which Erica is avoiding in her writings.
On the other hand, the most convincing tradition about Erica’s writings has been her commitment and dedication to telling the truth in this world polluted by lies. Throughout the book, Erica should be credited for her candidness whether it was about the sex scenes, the hunt for ecstasy, she tempts for alcohol, or her lust for Bill Clinton. Further mentioning her joy for tantric sex and the privileges of fame and blow of notoriety, Erica further proves her loyalty to truth.
“Seducing the Demon is another of Jong’s efforts to consecrate the great passions of her life: poetry in its timeless holiness; the exalted rigors of the writer’s life; love and sex in all their maddening worth.” New York Times
In all her writings, Erica Jong sets and plays by her own rules, and her favorite rule in writing is to let sex in. From all her novels, books or writings so far, one can gather that Erica heavily draws from her past works, the stories about motherhood, lost and found love and marriages, sobriety, and the sexcapadesof Isadora Wing. (Maxim)
Another rule which the author has followed throughout her writings is that she never lets the spotlight off her, be it any part of her life. Whether it was her marriage wreckage or her daughters’ fall in the hands of drugs or even her mother slip into dementia. All her sorrows have been as much part of her writings as her life, and this quality of Erica has drawn the reader to her works in all these years. And the candid truth makes her works irresistible.
References
- Burling, Alexis. Bookreporter. 2008. Web.
- Darcy, Heather. Women Writers. 2004. Web.
- Dunea, Melanie. Guardian Unlimited. 1999. Web.
- Graham, Laurie. About Erica Jong. 1997. Web.
- Krum, Sharon. 2003. Web.
- Maxim, Nanette. Time Out New York. May 2006. Web.
- Montante, Sarah. The Yale review of Bokks. 1998. Web.
- Nehring, Cristina. 2006. Web.
- STOKES, TERRY. New York Times. 1997. Web.
- Times, New York. New York Times. 1996. Web.
- Wagman, Diana. Honesty Flying. 2006. Web.
- YOUNG, CATHY. 1998. Web.