661. Fear of Flying

Fear of Flying
Erica Jong
1973
Around 340 pages

Finally, something juicy. Usually if we get anything sexual on this List, it is highly disturbing and almost always written by a man, or a woman trying to prove she can be just as disgusting as a man. But this one is for the ladies, and it is most definitely appreciated.

Isadora Wing is a Jewish journalist on her way to a conference in Vienna. It is the first psychoanalysts conference since analysts were driven out during the Holocaust, and she is apprehensive, as she has a phobia of flying. She is accompanied by her husband Bennett, also a psychoanalyst, but falls quickly for Adrian Goodlove. 

Sorry Bennett, but I was definitely rooting for Isadora to explore all her untapped sexual fantasies with Adrian. Of course, it's not as shocking now as it would have been to the first readers, but it is still immensely satisfying to see women's sexuality not treated as something shameful, or something strictly toted out for male pleasure.

I'm not going to spoil it, but I have to give a shout out to the ending as well. Definitely a must read in the feminist canon.  

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Sold more than 20 million copies.

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