Henry Miller has been one of my favorite writers for my entire adult life. I also am a fan of Erica Jong (who was onced facetiously tagged with the moniker of female Henry Miller) That made this book doubly alluring. I have always had to renconcile the raw bluntness of Miller with my own philosophical positions. A lot of Millers writing is extremely sexist on the surface and even on some deeper levels. I like the way Jong is able to point out how supportive Miller was of female writers like Marie Corelli and Emma Goldman and Helena Blavatsky. (all writers I read because of Miller) She also cites his support of her own career. Miller was a child of the Teddy Roosevelt era but he sought to overcome all these obstacles. Most of his writing was an attempt to transcend these weaknesses. Did Miller fear women as Jong suggests? She certainly presents a strong argument to that end. This is a touching elegy to a writer that influenced and aided Jong in her own literary ascension. As to the criticism that this book is really about Erica Jong, I would state that The Time of the Assassins is really about Henry Miller and Anais Nins book on D.H. Lawrence is largely about Anais Nin. These are artists writing about other writers and not critics presenting literary criticism. It should be read as a salute and not as objective analysis. And I state it does succeed quite well at that.

Jong tackles Miller's wide-ranging life from the perspectives of friend and fellow writer. She also takes the nearly unheard-of fresh angle of looking at Miller as a human being, warts and all. As linear biography, the book doesn't work; this is fortunate, as it is intended -- and works -- as a romp through someone's life.

In a fine mesh of poetry, prose, research, experience and playfulness, Erica Jong succeeds in giving one an idea of what Miller might have been like if one had met him. This is far more valuable than any diatribes or rants regarding the often alleged "obscenity" of Henry Miller's work. Readers also can find here a more concrete analysis of Miller's many facets: supporter of woman writers, conqueror of his own Oedipal complex, father, lover, dirty old man, intellectual, rover.

If you like Henry Miller, read it and learn more. If you hate Henry Miller, make an effort to understand him. You still might not like his writing, but you'll at least have one hype-free view of his work and life -- and Erica Jong's writing is as fresh and funny as ever.

My take on this...

And so, it is.

Everyone has somehow come to the notion that their generation, their time is "the one" and that there is nothing new under the sun unless their generation creates it or is savvy enough about adapting it as their own. Also, something construed as 'challenging to' our accepted notions should be outright condemned. Case in point is when Jong published "Fear Of Flying" groups everywhere labelled as way too provocative. Jong's reply: "I had imagined that everyone knew Chaucer, Rabelais, Lawrence and Joyce were full of sex, so why all the fuss?"

"The Devil at Large" is about liberators, necromancers, artists and writers--about writers Jong and Miller, about how similar they were and how they came to be fast friends and about this blindsidedness of the public I spoke of above. It is for those of us searching for answers, it is about, to flip-flop paraphrase the great psychedelic bluesband Funkadelic, "freeing your a**, and your mind will follow". Who better than Isadora Wing herself should do a work on the Dirty Ol' Man of Letters? This is, my friends, a great book with great ideals.

And so, it is.

To many, Miller is a rabid misogynist who doesn't deserve a second glancing. His use of language is dense and unappealing and obscure and he goes deep, deep into what we cultured folks would call unmentionable..like the section on French urinals vs. American urinals from the novel 'Black Spring'. But, see the facts that he's described the unmentionable, that he attempted to put words to an otherwise impossible to describe feeling, frees us all...

The universe is perceived by us all sensually. To be part of the universe is to be expressive sensually, according to Miller via Jong. To embrace both the flesh consuming microbes and the exudates we normally discard, to love equally the dung and the diamonds.

Embracing only our high ideals never lead to anything, says Miller through Jong, but war, famine and hatred. And, concludes Jong, "Without obscenity, there is no divinity". If we do not accept and embrace it all--even the nastinesses--there cannot be a breakthrough of the physical to the spiritual. Life is about liberation, minute by minute, fear by fear. Miller's role according to Jong is to help us liberate ourselves by reading about his struggles with his own liberation..

But, alas! Personal liberation? We cultured folks are much more interested in new tires for our cars since the economy is doing so well and we want to feel only as liberated as the freedom of motion we get from our cars...

And so, it is.

i love to read people writing their own story.and this one can be the best of them.erica share what's deep in her heart,and doesn't afraid to face her wrong and say sorry.this book helps women more for there are something only women meet in their life time and somthing only women understand.

Erica Jong is funny, witty, and unusual. After reading the book, I listened to her tapes. I enjoy giving them as gifts to my friends who turn 50. I even gave it to my 30 year old stepdaughter and she loved it, too....Erica Jong helped me look forward to "Turning 50"---well almost!

This kinda-trashy, kinda-intellectual novel is classic Jong. The protagonist, a Shakespearean actress, certainly isn't facing a shortage of [physical] encounters. In fact, she has a romp with the Bard himself. The books is a little bit difficult to follow, as it bounces back & forth between Shakespearan times & modern times. It is spiced up with a word or two of Italian here & there, references to contemporary art, andnd it is rich with Shakespearean history & references to Shakespeare's works. If you like a little Shakespeare in your steamy romance reads, this book is for you.

This cassette presents a excellent variety of thought on the mysterious concept of soul mates. Deepak Chopra, Thomas Moore, Barbara De Angelis, John Gray and Erica Jong all contribute penetrating insights into love, the nature of relationships and how soul mates are manifest into our lives. These top contemporary thinkers provide deep thought provoking ideas into this often mystical area. I find myself discovering something new and moving each time I listen to this tape. A good one to further your spiritual growth.

There are two unrelated pieces by Mark Twain in this volume, both of them fallen into (or perhaps, never rose from) obscurity, and deservedly so. "1601" is an lewd & raunchy imaginary conversation at the court of Elizabeth I. The narrator is disgusted by what he has heard -- the author partly shares the disgust and partly is fascinated with the fact that raunchy talk was not always taboo. This story has value as a look into Victorian sensibilities and into Twain's personality, but I did not enjoy reading it. I found it tedious, like Chaucer's Miller's Tale.

"Is Shakespeare Dead?" is a wonderful but misleading title. Actually this piece is about the old controversy of whether Shakespeare wrote the works attributed to him, with Twain jousting for the Baconian cause. He admits at the outset that he originally developed his Baconian prejudice merely for the sake of argument with an ardent Avonian. This work adds nothing useful to the Baconian position, and would be of interest only to the most ardent collectors of Twainiana.

1601 recounts a naughty fireside chat between Shakespeare and other noteworthy english figures. Twain writes the entire text in a basterdized version of middle english spelled phoneticly. It is quite funny but difficult to read and rather course. In the second half of the book Twain argues that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays. It is a prime example of Twain's wit and one long gentlemanly slight against Shakespeare.

Yes, this IS a fart joke. In fact, rumor has it that Twain's poker buddies were its first readers. The then Sec'y of the Army had West Point Press publish it.The transcendant skill and humor raises this to greatness, despite the subject. In fact, Twain probably took this as a huge challenge.Keep it from the youngest until they can appreciate it, but read it aloud alone together every Valentine's day.

I love the novels and poems of Erica Jong, but I pray that FANNY stays out of print. It's her only mistake in a glorious career, and readers should forgive her. FANNY is, in a word, unreadable. Even if you overlook (ha! just TRY to) the way it was written, you will find yourself yawning before Our Beauteous Heroine flees Lymworth. The plot is paper thin and predictable--and flat out unbelievable. Too many coincidences mar an already weak plot.

Quite frankly the nnarrative is punishing. I wanted to wring Fanny's neck. I'faith, it will make You tear out Your beauteous auburn Hair! Jong should be embarassed and so should her publisher! In fact, this is not the author's fault, but the editor's. For shame! Someone should have said, Look, Erica: This book is neither here nor there. Either make it a "normal" historical or go back to writing the contemporary novels that made you famous.

Then again, it could've been the author's fault. Perhaps bestsellerdom convinced Our Authoress that anything she penned would automatically sell like hotcakes! If this book ever appeared on any bestseller list, I daresay it was due to print run and nothing else.

I think I know what she was trying to do--to mimic an 18th century novel and to impart a sense of the dialogue of the day. It was an admirable attempt, and if any author on this earth could pull it off, Jong was the most likely candidate. However she failed to write a book for every sort of reader--even literate readers found FANNY irritating. It failed to find a niche, a genre. If a novel lacks an audience, it becomes dangerous to the author. Sad to say, it probably took her years to write the bloody thing.

Read INVENTING MEMORY, if you like fiction, or FEAR OF FIFTY, if you like essays. If you like historical fiction, read Dorothy Dunnett or Jane Austen (depending on your tastes, of course). But do yourself a favor and stay away from this deformed novel.

Fanny is an amazing book. It has everything: Adventure, ideas, a wonderful plot, interesting characters - and it emulates very well the 18th century novel style, without compromising on the freshness or the originality of the content. Every woman should read this book.

This is one of my favorite books of all time. The kind you want to devour, but then you put down between chapters to savor and never want to end. It's got everything. Women's rights, motherhood, witches, thirst for knowledge, love, lust, and a story to capture your heart and imagination.

First off, I'm a guy, so perhaps I'm off base on this book in terms of how "real" or "true" it is. My apologies for that. At the time I read it, I was a not-quite-but-almost-naive college junior, so perhaps I will learn in time.

But regarding this book, I thought it was pretty insightful. After countless late nights of sitting up and listening to the woes of my women friends, I could easily detect echos of FOF in the conversations.

This novel spawned at least three sequels. Perhaps someone with firsthand (rather than my secondhand) experience with the issues presented in those books could comment more specifically on them. I'll limit myself to saying that while I did not find Fear of Flying to self-serving or overly didatic, I did find its various sequels to be so, the degree worsening as the chronology did.

*Fear of Flying* is an Excellent Book, ladies and gentlemen. I highly recommend it men and women of all genders (who says we only have to have two?).

I picked up this book in my mother's garage about 3 years ago, when I was 18. I admit that I was interested in it because of the sexy cover quotes like "steamy!" and "shocking!"

I read it. And it's turned out to be one of my favorite books. Not because it got me hot and bothered.. it wasn't any more "steamy" than an episode of NYPD blue, but because I found myself identifying so much with Isadora's plight... her urge to find herself, to balance her love for her husband with her urge to find the "zipless f***" and to do it all in a society that frowned upon a healthy sexual appetite in women.

Some people have found that the novel is self-serving and self-righteous, but not a drop of that came through to me. As a matter of fact, I was shocked to hear it!

I loved the book and I think most young women would too - which is why you're hearing a heartfel reccomendation from me!

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.

I've been reading Erica Jong's books for ages...probably a compulsion of some sort!! I find myself turning & returning to these books from time to time, when I'm feeling strange / down / lonely, because I feel as if I'm reading what an acquaintance or a far-away friend has written. This though doesn't mean that I appreciate all of her books the same, & it also doesn't mean that I think Erica Jong is an excellent writer. I just feel comfortable with her writing for some reason, although god knows why..

About "Fear of fifty": It seems to me that Erica Jong has written the same story, again & again. And again. And again, until frankly anyone, even the most well-intentioned person would get tired of it all. I was certainly enthusiastic about her writing at first. But what I think has happened is this-- beginning with "Fear of flying", & in all the books after that, what she has written really is her life story. As I said- really good & original to read the first time around (that's why "Fear of flying" is still Jong's best-selling book) but tedious after a while.

The heroine of "Fear of flying" seems to be in no way different from the woman shown in "Fear of fifty", & I have no idea why Erica Jong thought she had to write an autobiography. In "Fear of fifty" she just re-wrote the same things she'd already written in other books. I'm sure I'm no exception when I say that I was already familiar with all the themes in the book, & I knew what was coming, all the way through. This is the reason that I found "Fear of fifty" unoriginal & repetitive, although I must say that there was some comfort to be had in returning to these familiar themes. My point is--Erica Jong's ideas are interesting & her writing is (sometimes) inspired. But reading her books has been like eating the same food again & again: the first time around it was tasty. After a while, it got boring.

Fear of Fifty is Erica Jong's best book. Fans will recognize all the memorable episodes of her life as she revisits them, this time through the eyes of a wiser woman.

It seems that Erica Jong has finally grown up. Gone is the obsession with sex and the dependence on men that characterized her earlier books. In this book, Ms. Jong comes to terms with the contradictions of her existence, and in so doing, very intelligently points out the wild contradictions of her generation and of our contemporary society.

The best section comes at the end, where Ms. Jong lays out her own personal feminist treatise. This section, although highly theoretical, is endowed with a clarity and passion that should rally every single woman reader, regardless of age, to the cause.

Ms. Jong quite rightly chastises women as well as men for causing and maintaining the feminist backlash. Encouraging harmony, comprehension and unity, she calls for a new feminism that would include all women regardless of class, race, age, sexual orientation or profession. She exalts the creativity and artistic or professional ability of women, as well as their capacity for motherhood and caretaking. In fact, she suggests that the two sides of a woman are complementary rather than imcompatible.

This book really clarified for me the situation of women in our Western society. I highly recommend it to anyone of any age interested in art, culture, literature, history or feminism. Although the content is highly intellectual in some respects, Ms. Jong's entertaining, passionate and humorous voice is always present. And it is absolutely not a "woman's book"; it is vital that as many men as possible read Fear of Fifty.

Firstly, let me point out that I am 21 years old, and almost didn't buy the book because I was afraid it would be some paean to "mid-life" that I just wouldn't get. The Jongroupie in me won out, though - and I am SO glad she did.

Anyone who has ever read an Erica novel, anyone who ever plans to, anyone who yearns to hear a profoundly female voice speak honestly yet comfortingly into her/his mind's ear - this is a must-have. Besides answering every "Where does Isadora end and Erica begin?" question, this book contains a good dozen touching poems, countless anecdotes, and the sweetly detailed account of how Erica met her current husband. Erica writes about being a writer, a Jew, a feminist, a scholar, a daughter, a mother, a wife - a WOMAN. It is a novel, I believe, about WOMANHOOD, first and foremost, from the pen of a woman who has seen hell and high water during her 50 years.

Far from being a boring mid-life memoir, the book reads like a novel and a really fun one at that, with all the feminine feminism, the wry jokes, the clever commentary and the juicy sex scenes of Erica's other books. Unlike her novels, however, this book draws the bold authoress out from between the lines and places her right before the reader - beautifully unembellished, womanly, young enough to take another ride on the rollercoaster and old enough to truly appreciate it.

Loveroot is a wonderful book of poems writen in in the late 60's. The poems are very feminist, as Jong was a very strong and outspoken woman. The book is divided into 3 sections, each include a nice handful of poetry. Throught the book you'll find many poems written for or about other writers, such as Whitman, Plath, Sexton, and Keats. Some critics say that Jong uses language that is very sexual, not common for a woman, and sometimes just too pornographic. However, this collection is not that way. This is her 3rd book of poems, and her themes are the same, but they are presented more lightly and with a bit more humor. Definately on collection to have for you own!

Many will find Erica Jong's writing shocking. This little book of poetry is no exception. The vantagepoint is wholly feminine, and not entirely happy. Deals primarily with the agonies of relationships, including many sexualized references. Wives, housewives, and rejected lovers will all find words to ponder here.

Some of the poems also address Jong's poetic predecessor's, such as Pablo Neruda, Colette, and Mary Shelley, and these little poems may probably cause you to re-evaluate the original authors in light of Jong's unique viewpoint. Sometimes scathing realism. Graphic language.

I first read Jong's famous Fear of Flying while in college, when the heroine was the ancient-seeming age of 27ish. Have since reread every few years through the present, now well through my 30s, and I still find FoF not only a great read but full of new insight.
Why, oh, why then, can't this woman write another novel I can bear to get through? I can't say I've tried them all (maybe Fear of 50, though not a novel, holds the most promise), but How to Save Your Own Life, for example, and now Inventing Memory, drive me to distraction with their lovingly self-indulgent descriptions of the main Jong character that lacks any of the funny self-deprecating description of FoFlying. The soft-core prose without the bite. Narrative sometimes get going but is quickly knocked off its wheels by the occasionally trenchant but mostly excessive Yiddish proverbs that litter every few paragraphs. A cheesy mess.
Maybe my expectations are just too high, as I still call Flying one of my all time favorite books -- not just because it's fun, but because it offered such dead-on descriptions of questions a woman asks herself as she's coming into her own, plagued alternately by belief in her own brilliance and star power and the fear of failing, as well as wrestling with the idea of where love/men should figure into one's life.
Gone and by the wind-grieved Erica, come back again.

I have read almost all of Erica Jong's earlier books, & I was looking forward to reading this one. Although in the beginning this novel seemed promising (Sarah's story is very lively & well told) later the book dragged on and on...Jong's central themes (women versus men, spirit versus day to day life) were better explored in her earlier works.

It seems as if Erica Jong is, yet again, trying to say the same old things in the same old way. Maybe the "same old things" part isn't what's wrong: the "same old way" part definitely is. She's an intelligent writer, seems like an intelligent & very lively person (especially from Fear of Fifty, even though that too, was repetitive) so why can't she start writing something different? I mean, completely different, not just "changing the names of the main characters" different...

I have read almost all of Erica Jong's earlier books, & I was looking forward to reading this one. Although in the beginning this novel seemed promising (Sarah's story is very lively & well told) later the book dragged on and on...Jong's central themes (women versus men, spirit versus day to day life) were better explored in her earlier works.