Rating: 
Summary: Fans will relish this great beach read
Review: Erica Jong leads us on a journey back 2,600 years to experience the adventurous life of history's most famed love poetess, Sappho of Lesbos. Sappho was seduced at the tender age of 14 by her idol, the romantic poet Alcaeus. Pregnant and in disgrace, she is forced to marry a lecherous old sot to keep her out of trouble, but she instead plots to overthrow her stepfather, the island's cruel dictator. She loses custody of her baby daughter through her mother's treachery, and she and her female lover and slave, Praxinoa, are banished from Lesbos, doomed to roam the islands in search of her daughter and her true love, Alcaeus.Aphrodite and Zeus amuse themselves by toying with Sappho to challenge her resourcefulness and prove her worthiness. Aphrodite has faith that Sappho is worthy of being memorialized as history's greatest singer. Zeus scoffs that she will fail as all women do, by throwing herself away on a man. They toss heaving ocean storms, shipwrecks, pirates, erupting volcanoes and hordes of barbarians in her path on an odyssey to rival Odysseus. She encounters centaurs, the legendary Amazons, wanders aimlessly through Hades, becomes the favorite of an Egyptian Pharaoh, vies with the Oracle of Delphi as a seeress, winning her way into portals usually closed to women with her enchanting songs and poetry. The few remaining fragments of poems available to scholars stirred Jong to research the fascinating times of ancient Greece and bring Sappho to life in a way portrayed by no other author. Jong says in the afterword: "Sappho is an icon to women everywhere despite the fact that so little is known about her. She is associated with women's sexuality and gay rights, but she may not have been homosexual at all, or she may have loved both women and men as was common in the ancient world, and in ours. The concept of homosexuality as a distinct lifestyle did not exist in classical antiquity. People were bisexual, free of sexual guilt as we know it; it was a pagan world. Attitudes toward love, toward sex, toward conquest, toward slavery, toward money, toward social climbing were uncannily like our own --- and yet fascinatingly different. Women were sexual chattel, yet, as in all times, there were rebellious, adventurous women." It's no wonder Erica Jong was fascinated with the multi-faceted poet of legend. When she roared onto the bestseller lists with FEAR OF FLYING in the 1970s she was hailed as shocking, exhilarating and at the cutting edge of women's sexuality. Fans will relish this creative and thoroughly exuberant historic romp through ancient times. I had not read Jong since FEAR OF FLYING, but am now looking for back titles. My pick for a great beach read.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Erica Jong's story is fantastic. Turning Sappho into a modern feminist heroin, Erica Jong takes readers on an incredible journey through antique Greece, perfectly mixing love, mythology, womanhood, poetry and epic tales. She is a gifted writer and I hightly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A VERY NICE BIT OF HISTORICAL FICTION
Review: Erica Jong, possibly one of the most underestimated writers of today, does herself well with this wonderful work of historical fiction. Her prose is absolutely delightful as is her ability to tell a story. Here Ms. Jong has melded fiction, mysticism, historical fact and speculation into a wonderful tale about a fascinating woman in a fascinating time. She, the author, also gives us a good account of the ancient Gods, and the role they were felt to play in human lives. We have the added bonus of having some of Ms. Jong's translations (there are many many of these out there, and these of Ms. Jong's are as good as any) along with some very nice pieces (poetry) by the author, written in the style of the time. As with any work, there are a couple of questionable lines in the book. I more or less had to agree with another reviewer that the couple of lines discussing dildos may have been a bit over the top, but they certainly do not distract from the work or the story in the least....in my most
humble opinion. I would also suggest you follow the authors suggestion that you find and read for yourself some of the great translations of Sappho's wonderful work. Read the story, enjoy it. All in all, I highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Utter Tripe
Review: Have you ever desperately wanted a book to end but hated leaving it unfinished?
That's the way Sappho's Leap was for me. I finally finished it over the weekend and am still wishing I hadn't spent good money, even bad money, any money on it.
Admittedly, very little is known about the only ancient Greek female poet besides where she probably lived and a few snippets of her poetry. Her words are searing, lovely and sometimes erotic. But Erica Jong's novel fictionalizing her life was banal and boring and droll. Sappho, as her heroine is not only uninteresting, but has no single aspect of her personality that makes me like her. Sure, she experiences heartache and longing, but Jong simply fails to give me a reason to care.
Jong just tells me, flatly, in first person, how Sappho feels and what she thinks, but doesn't make it real for me. She tries to make Sappho into a female Odysseus and can't figure out if the novel should be a fantasy or a semi-believable historical account. And all that wrapped up with a very disappointing, Hollywood ending, tied it off into an unequivocal piece of garbage.
I can't believe Erica Jong has actually written and published eight novels. It honestly seems like she wrote Sappho's Leap specifically to sell to high school English departments to teach a bit of Greek history with a feminist slant. Regardless of whatever pocket genre she was trying to exploit, Sappho's Leap is utter tripe.
Rating: 
Summary: Sappho and sex.... and magic??
Review: I have very mixed feelings about this book and can't say I enjoyed it all that much. I love the story of Sappho, what little is known of it, and so I picked up this book expecting to see a historical fiction novel cut with realism, research, and certainly the unavoidable necessary lewdness of the celebrity of Lesbos. But monsters? Centaurs? I mean, the story of Sappho's life is not the story of The Odyssey and for the life of me I don't understand why author Erica Jong decided to give her readers a combination of Greek heroine and Clash of the Titans.
Once I was able to get past the fantasy elements, I realized that I was not being pulled into the story on its own merits. There wasn't enough emotional dimension -- for all her travels, we're shown pretty landscapes and scary oceans but we don't see enough of a real character. I read Sappho's poems in college and the talented mind behind those words is NOT present in this book.
I'm not saying the book is without its good points. Jong has certainly done a lot of research and her enthusiasm is many times contagious. But I found the whole bit a little odd... like picking up a book about Cleopatra and seeing her encounter dragons, unicorns, and the goddess Isis. If Jong had written about Ariadne, this all might have worked. The blend of fantasy just didn't add up to a palatable meal for me.
Rating:
Summary: loved loved loved!
Review: I rented this book from the library about a year or so ago. I LOVED it! I'm back here now b/c I'm putting it on my wishlist for Christmas! I want to read it again and again. I'd never read Erica Jong or anything about Sappho. I saw Erica on The Daily Show and they talked about this book and I ran to the library. You should buy this book! Greatness!
Rating:
Summary: Syrupy, predictable, and plagiaristic
Review: On our recent road trip, my girlfriend and I brought along some audio books to help us stay awake. Both were historical fiction set in ancient Greece. Sappho's Leap was read by the author, and her mangled pronunciations and over-dramatic tone may have influenced my reaction, but I don't think so.
Unlike Thermopylae, the subject of Gates of Fire (review coming soon), virtually nothing about Sappho is known, Ms. Jong was free to make up just about any story she liked. And she did. Sappho's Leap is a sappy love story with a long interlude where Jong basically plagiarizes Homer, only watering him down to speed the plot. Further, and to make matters worse, Sappho's Leap is not very well-written. It is melodramatic, banal, and overly adjectival. It reads like syrup. Jong apparently can't think of a word for vagina other than "delta" and nothing for penis other than "phallus," which words are like comedy catchphrases by the end of the novel.
The book starts out well. Sappho has climbed a cliff, but pauses to reflect on the story of her life (in media res, like every Greek story). She starts at the beginning, relating how she runs away from hom with Alceous, a famous Lesbian singer. They are exiled from Lesbos for trying to overthrow its tyrant, and her adventures begin. She is married off to a paunchy lush who lives in Syracuse, although pregnant with Alceous's child, to be named Cleis (mispronounced by Jong). When her husband dies, the adventure begins in earnest. After a stay in Egypt, Sappho takes off with the fabulist, Aesop, for Delphi, but is frequently sidetracked along the way. Jong sends Sappho to the Amazons on Crete (?!?) where she causes the return of Pegasus, the island of the centaurs, the underworld, Medusa's sister, etc. In an age where the Greeks occupied the majority of the Mediterranean, Sappho manages to elude everyone for a space of ten years or more, which occupy maybe four chapters of the book.
These adventures are trite, simplified copies of the Odyssey, and add almost nothing to the plot. Nothing really improves from there. Once Sappho returns to the land of the real, Jong wraps things up quickly and predictably. The novel ends with a syrupy, happy ending. Sappho and all her lovers and friends end up living on another random island with her friends, until her daughter sails up with her grandchildren. Ugh.
And don't get me started on the "poems" at the end.
This was my first Erica Jong book, and I think it will be my last. It gets two stars only because I need a lower rung for pulp romance.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Read this book and you will find romance, myth, legend, poetry, and history all weaved into one incredible tale. Jong follows the story of the poet's life while incorporating all the Greek myths that we have come to know, including Odysseus, Aphrodite and Zeus, Hades, Pegasus, the Amazons, the oracle of Delphi and much more. I was riveted throughout the reading of this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: An O.K. Sappho story
Review: Sappho's Leap is a nice work of fiction. Mind you the key word in this is Fiction. Over all I liked the story, but there are few things that I had problems with in this story. I have to point out that Jong made a few very good points. From the prologue: "So many stories about me. My legend confused with the legends of Aphrodite. Did I leap to My death for the love of a handsome young ferryman? Did I love women or men? Does love even have a sex. I doubt it. If you are lucky enough to love, who cares what decorative flesh your lover sports? The divine delta, that juicy fig, the powerful phallus, that scepter of state--each is only an aspect of Aphrodite, after all. We are all hermaphrodites at heart--aren't we? The delta is soft as Aphrodite the phallus stiff as Ares' spear. And no one wears anything for long but a coat of dust. Only the songs of passion linger" I really think that people can learn from a passage like this. It is things like this that make Jong's book worth the time to read. If you have never read any of Sappho's work I suggest you do.
Rating:
Summary: Sappho Would've Leapt After Reading This
Review: That's what this book should have been titled. Erica Jong is, indeed, an incredible writer, but not here. Not even close. Her willingness to have two female characters candidly discuss the merits of dildos does not automatically qualify her as a feminist writer. I seriously doubt that Sappho, wherever she may now be, finds it entertaining or edifying to know that Erica Jong thought so little of her as to portray her as a dildo fan. If "Sex and the City" were still spewing out new episodes, perhaps Ms. Jong would have eventually suggested an episode featuring Sappho as a dildo salesperson and Carrie Bradshaw as her devoted dildo-loving customer.
Feminism is not about having to use "scary" words like dildo and (...)to prove how much of a woman you are. It's about knowing that you are enough of a woman to not have to prove your feminism to anyone...ever.
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