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 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.

 

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