Questioning Fear of Flying
By Brittany Muller
IV Leader Staff, Mar 15, 2007
Every so often a book will come along that evokes a
strange but fascinating feeling.
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong is a book I am not sure what to
think of. True, this book is entertaining, surprising, and somewhat shocking,
but, to me, it seems to lack a real pivotal moment that makes me love a book.
Every failed relationship the narrator has encountered is
described (painfully) in each chapter. The narrator is insecure and dependent on
the men in her life. She finds it difficult to be alone; she seems to define
herself with the men she is with.
Although the narrator is highly intelligent (so much that I
needed a dictionary to get through this book), she seems to dumb herself down to
make men happy, which tended to be quite frustrating.
There were many riddles throughout the book, as though the
characters were speaking a completely different language. Even though I tried as
hard as I could to pay close attention to what was happening, I found myself
gripping and shaking the book, asking, “What?!” more than a few times.
On a brighter note, the book is well written in the sense of
diverse language. I hardly knew that some of the words chosen were English; this
book will definitely improve one’s vocabulary.
Before each chapter, the author includes a short quote from
different sources. Some are mildly entertaining, including this one: “Bigamy is
having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same.”
Fear of Flying is a challenging but interesting (depends on
your definition of “interesting”) book. It is considered a “groundbreaking” book
for its honesty and shocking revelations about women and men. This book has many
highs and lows, but overall, it is a book to remember, even if that is not
necessarily an outstanding thing.