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JONG, Erica

Born 26 March 1942, New York, New York

Daughter of Seymour and Eda Mirsky Mann; married Michael Werthman, 1963; Allen Jong, 1966; Jonathan Fast, 1977; Kenneth David Burrows, 1989; children: Miranda ("Molly")

The second of three daughters, Erica Jong grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side. While an undergraduate English major at Barnard, Jong was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won Woodrow Wilson and George Weldwood Murray fellowships, as well as the Academy of American Poets prize and other awards at Columbia. She earned an M.A. in 18th-century literature from Columbia in 1965. Jong spent 1966-69 in Heidelberg, Germany. Her first novel, Fear of Flying (1973), made her a celebrity.

Fear of Flying is about a woman's discovery of her selfhood, through discarding cultural stereotypes and accepting responsibility for defining herself, first as a Jew, then as a woman—with all the vulnerability that this entails—and finally as a writer. Through strategically juxtaposed flashbacks, the first half of the novel provides the psychological motivations behind Isadora's dilemma as she debates whether to leave her husband and go off with another man. Although she feels restless and frustrated, Isadora depends on her husband, as she always has depended on men for security. But Adrian, her new lover, awakens the part of her that loves to be wanton and carefree and not feel guilty.

In the second half of the novel, Isadora and Adrian begin an erratic odyssey across Europe, zigzagging their way from Vienna to Paris. Away from time and social conventions, it becomes a journey of self-discovery for Isadora, as she describes in rambling conversations her past relationships with men. A pattern emerges: she has allowed them to exploit her, and they have never proved satisfying both physically and emotionally. By the end of the novel, abandoned by Adrian and waiting for her husband in his London hotel room, she has come to realize she can't find fulfillment through another person, but only through achieving her own authenticity as a human being. Most of the controversy this novel stirred up focuses on its explicit sexuality. But such criticism overlooks its solid literary qualities—its use of allusions and symbols, as well as other imagery, to underscore its theme; its robust humor; and most of all its freshness, honesty, and abundant vitality.

How to Save Your Own Life (1977) picks up Isadora's story in New York, after she has written a bestselling novel and become even more estranged from her husband, and takes her through her disenchantment with the Hollywood producer for whom she is writing a film version of her novel to her decision to leave her husband and take up residence with Josh Ace, a struggling young writer in Hollywood. Both the style and themes of How to Save Your Own Life indicate Jong's strengthening command of the novel form. The second book relies less on wisecracks and has a more lucid structure than the first. Also, in dramatizing her protagonist's change from dependency to womanhood and her rejection of self-destruction in favor of life, Jong breaks away from traditional literary treatment of female characters by not eroticizing pain or making her "free woman" pay for her sins.

Jong has also published several volumes of poetry. Fruits & Vegetables (1971), which treats a variety of experiences, is most notable for its experiments in style, such as its botanical imagery and the intermingling of prose and poetry. Half-Lives (1973) is more consistent in subject matter and tone. The main themes are a woman's sexual and emotional longings; the tone predominantly wistful or angry. Loveroot (1975) announces a change in the author's attitude—a joyous embracing of life, with all of its pain and uncertainty. These three volumes were highly praised and won several awards. Here Comes & Other Poems (1975) is a compilation of previously published poems and essays. At the Edge of the Body (1979) has received little critical attention; however, it reflects the author's deepening maturity. The quality of Jong's reviews and articles about writing places her in the front ranks of feminist literary critics. Jong's fiction and poetry, with its willingness to take risks and experiment, demonstrates continuing growth and self-confidence.

Jong's work since 1979 has been prolific and varied. The travels and travails of Isadora, heroine of Fear of Flying and How to Save Your Own Life, are continued in Parachutes & Kisses (1984) and Any Woman's Blues (1990). The first takes Isadora through the breakup of her marriage to Josh Ace, her recovery from the divorce, and rediscovery of love—all while raising her toddler daughter. The next begins with the breakup of the love affair begun at the end of the previous novel. Any Woman's Blues diverges from its predecessors by continuing Isadora's saga from a one-step removed point of view. The novel's conceit is that another author has organized and finished the semiautobiographical novel Isadora had been working on shortly before her death. The author's voice now interacts with the character she bases on herself. This structure reflects Jong's new interest in experimenting with the borders between fiction and reality. Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones (1980) and Serenissima: A Novel of Venice (1987) represent her work in this vein. The genesis of Fanny is Jong's imagined response to Cleland's heroine in Fanny Hill; or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Fanny responds by writing her own version of her life to reclaim it for herself. In this way, Jong confronts the issues not addressed at the time, of incest, prostitution, and woman's powerless position in society, and does so from within, by giving the very source of Cleland's novel a voice. In Serenissima (later reissued as Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in Venice in 1995), Jong continues to appropriate and rework older styles and language. The heroine is an actress at a Venice film festival who is about to play Jessica in a new film production of The Merchant of Venice. Becoming feverishly ill, she begins to hallucinate and dreams she is a Jew in Venice around Shakespeare's time—in fact, the very woman who will inspire Shakespeare to write The Merchant of Venice. Accidents of fate bring her together with Shakespeare and, naturally, adventures ensue. Jong's attempts to meld and confuse the border of time greatly test her reader's suspension of disbelief. Serenissima could have used more of the refinement of Fanny in concept as well as structure; and the contrast between the critical and popular receptions of the two novels reflect these discrepancies.

Jong has also ventured into two other genres: nonfiction and children's literature. Witches (with Joseph Smith, 1981), a book about witches and witchcraft, utilizes poetry and illustrations—in addition to the expected prose—to educate its readers. Clearly the result of much research, it even includes a few spells and rites one might practice, if one dared. Megan's Book of Divorce (1984), a self-proclaimed "kid's book for adults," takes on divorce, presumably from Jong's daughter's point of view. The view, however, seems a little unrealistically rosy. The book was reissued in a less candid title in 1996 as Megan's Two Houses: A Story of Adjustment.

Jong considers herself primarily a poet. She has published Ordinary Miracles (1983) and Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected (1991). The first covers the themes of motherhood and divorce, while the second is a comprehensive compilation, including poems from each of her previous collections as well as some early unpublished poems, poems included in other prose works, and more recent poems.

In the early 1990s, Jong added yet another genre to her portfolio with Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir (1994), an autobiographical blend of personal history coupled with biting social criticism. The book sheds additional light on Jong's earlier works and reveals a broader picture of the author. She offers her insight into the world of women while investigating her own roles as daughter, sister, wife, mother, writer, feminist, and Jew. Jong classifies her generation of women as the "whiplash generation" because of the roller coaster of changing expectations through which they've lived, and includes her thoughts on the past, present, and future of feminism. Above all, though, the book is hailed as honest and frank. Jong even addresses the disenchantment liberal feminists have felt with her previous work and argues that women who insist on political correctness only foster separatism and sexism.

Jong's following work, Inventing Memory: A Novel of Mothers and Daughters (1997), goes back to novel form with the story of four generations of Jewish women struggling with the challenges of their time. The founding woman, Sarah, escapes Russia as a 15-year-old and makes her way to the U.S. to find a better life. She successfully navigates these trials and later bears a daughter, Salome. Salome becomes a freewheeling writer and moves back to Europe. She has a daughter, Sally, who grows up in the 1960s in the U.S. and becomes a popular singer. Sally delves into the world of drug and alcohol abuse, and when she gives birth to a daughter, Sara, the father is soon granted permanent custody. This woman is the final generation featured, and pulls the story together in search of her heritage. The early characters in the novel, particularly Sarah, are the most popular with critics. The story tends to drag, becoming more bogged down with each generational layer, and most do not consider it one of Jong's best works. The topics she deals with (Jewish immigration to America, challenges for female artists, and women's spirituality), says one critic, are better addressed in her autobiography.

Jong's more recent work, What Do Women Want? Bread, Roses, Sex, Power (1998), is a collection of her essays on a variety of topics. She deals with issues ranging from censorship to Bill and Hillary Clinton to her second home in Italy. While the book doesn't answer the question posed in the title, the compilation is almost like a conversation between Jong and the reader. Criticism of the book varies depending on the essay, but most agree that Jong's characteristic honesty once again shines through on every topic.