Fear of Dying - Hardcover

Jong taps into a wider revolution in older women's lives . . . Fear of Dying examines in minute detail every older woman's anxiety about her body . . . Jong's creating a forum for discussion . . . Older women were also avid readers of Fifty Shades of Grey. After that, what else could shock? Only Erica Jong * * The Sunday Times * * A wise, warm, witty take on the taboo that replaced sex * * Daily Mail * * Vividly written * * The Times * * I loved Fear of Dying. I found it irreverent, funny, tender and very wise and it made me feel more alive -- RACHEL JOYCE * * The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry * * How she was able to deal with all these sensitive issues and still make the book funny is amazing. I loved reading it -- WOODY ALLEN It's going to happen to all of us and yet talking about it seems taboo. Just as she once ripped the lace modesty vest off sex, Erica Jong has now exposed death in all its immodesty -- SHIRLEY CONRAN * * author of Lace * * Fear of Flying was a liberating hymn to sex: Fear of Dying adds despatches from the dark side and becomes a hymn to love -- Fay Weldon Erica Jong has done it again! Fear of Dying is a big, bawdy, beautifully-written romp through online hookups, female friendships, children grappling with adulthood and parents negotiating with death. Fear of Dying is big, warm-hearted, generous book that will satisfy Jong's longtime fans and delight her new readers -- JENNIFER WEINER Moving and deeply poetic, Fear of Dying is a compelling novel that truly understands the process of aging. With astonishing images on every page, Erica Jong gives us a veiled spiritual autobiography with an unstoppable quality, a narrative momentum that held me from first to last as it seamlessly unfolds from Jong's previous work, yet with sharp new edge, giving us a wise book, a book to savour -- JAY PARINI Erica Jong has written a whip-smart, insightful, hilarious and ridiculously relatable new novel . . . Destined to be called an instant classic, I could not put this stunning book down. In 1973, Fear of Flying was the book we needed, now the book we need is Fear of Dying -- JULIE KLAM Erica Jong fans, rejoice! Her new novel, the cleverly and aptly titled Fear of Dying, is a truth-teller's dream. In it, Jong and her alter egos face life's most difficult challenges, head on and all at once. As the great poet William Butler Yeats wrote, "the only two things worth writing about are sex and death," and in Fear of Dying, Jong takes on both. Along the way, she also tells the story of a marriage that grows happier despite all. This wise book, written in prose gorgeous enough to make one swoon, will delight and enrich the lives of everyone who reads it -- ROSEMARY DANIELL Fear of Dying is the perfect spirited, funny bookend to Erica Jong's classic Fear of Flying. In this lighthearted, sexy and wise romp of a novel, Jong explores some deep truths about ageing, family, love and marriage after sixty. This novel is a wonderful, readable blend of entertainment and wisdom. I loved it! -- Susan Cheever When I interviewed Jong 40 years ago, she called Fear of Flying "a declaration of independence". With its feisty violation of the verbal and sexual taboos of women's writing, and insistence that female artists should have all the freedom of male artists, "it was a counterphobic book". Fear of Dying is counterphobic too . . . a literary Joan Rivers . . . Jong has turned the page, and as a writer she still has a lot to say -- Elaine Showalter * * Guardian * * For young women of my generation, the story of Isadora Wing and her search for no-strings, satisfying sex was daring and startling and wonderful. It was like, "I am not the only woman who has fantasies - sexual or otherwise". When I met Erica Jong, not long after the book was published, I couldn't even speak because I was so in awe -- JUDY BLUME * * Elle, on FEAR OF FLYING * * Transcends being a woman's book and becomes a latter-day Ulysses, with a female Bloom stumbling and groping, but surviving * * Wall Street Journal * * Sometimes poignant, Fear of Dying left me with a sense of relaxed cheer . . . Even in her 70s, Jong remains the brash, randy adventurer whose work curs of the world may piss on, but who isn't about to let that stop her. She has what she was looking for many decades ago, the Chaucerian lust and joy of April's eternal shoures soote * * The Atlantic * * Trailblazing in its own right * * Time Magazine * * This is the novel as hall of mirrors: a piece of literary self-analysis and celebrity self-mythologisation, as well as a first-person fiction about a woman facing old age and parental decline . . . Jong does write bravely and boldly about parental loss, about sex in marriage, and about almost giving up on something and then deciding not to * * Independent * * In some ways the irrepressible Jong is just an old-fashioned girl for whom love and sex can never be entirely separated. As for the rest of us, we have to find our own sexual path. Thanks to outspoken Erica and others of her ilk, we can do so in the knowledge that sexagenarian sexuality is a celebration of life rather than a shameful secret * * Daily Telegraph * * Taps into a profound phenomenon of our times: never before has there been such a vast sea of older people (especially women) yearning for and usually gaining their freedom and independence, still in good nick and looking forward to many more years of life, love and, yes, bedroom frolics * * Daily Express * * Fear of Dying, with its twin themes of ageing and mortality, gently satirises the fact that the sex lives of the middle-aged are now fair game for multinational corporations * * Observer * * This bold, soaring novel tackles the big stuff * * Harper's Bazaar * * Defies the sunset of sex * * New York Times * * Erica Jong is back - as fearless as ever * * Washington Post * * Hilariously undaunted . . . refreshingly smutty and emotionally warm, it boldly explores late-life sexual adventure and longing, highlighting the intricate, often difficult relationship between sex, love and death * * Sunday Telegraph * *

The new novel from the author of the iconic international bestseller Fear of Flying As Vanessa watches her aged parents fade, her daughter prepare for childbirth and her much older husband, Asher, struggle in the throes of open-heart surgery, she dreams of reversing time and becoming young again. With her best years as an actress behind her, she's discovering that beginnings are easy but endings are hard. Could her fountain of youth fantasies be fulfilled on zipless.com, a site inspired by her best friend, Isadora Wing's fantasy of encounters with no consequences? Surrounded by mortality, Vanessa is restless and curious enough to try anything. And she does. But the results make her wonder whether what she craves - sex, love, connection - may be closer at hand than she realises. Fear of Flying has sold 27 million copies in forty languages. It has been hailed as a classic by scholars. Fear of Dying extends the satire, compassion and wisdom that still captivate readers the world over. It is destined, once again, to change the way we think about our lives.