Rating: 
Summary: Main character was unlikable
Review: I couldn't stand the protagonist. Of course, I'm not sure she was MEANT to be likable in the first place, but still, she turned me off. Plus, I had the constant thought running through my head throughout the book, "So just go get laid already, who really cares?" I suppose it was a big deal when it was originally written, but nowadays? Totally irrelevant.
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Summary: Use Your Fear to Fly
Review: This is a wonderful book for young ladies and women to read, beginning at 15 years old, because by this age girls question what it means to be women. And because their mothers didn't have the opportunities that are now available to us, this book is a wonderful place for women to explore their own thoughts about who to be.Isadora, the protagonists in this story, represents every woman at some time in our lives, searching for our own definition of what it means to be a woman. She struggles with unfinished business with her mom, as well as with each of her sisters, who insist that she be a mirror of them. Unlike many stories from the classics, Isadora doesn't die in the end, nor is she locked away from her desire to find her own definition of who she is. She realizes through new decisions that she makes, after she acts out her fantasies, that it is self-destructive to count upon other people's concept of who she should be, and what her desires should be. This novel moves quickly, is humorous, and very engaging. Another point that makes this novel so unique is that with eroticism as a strong part in this book, it has substance, and many life lessons to teach anyone who is open to explore her or his reality. Also, while this book does offer many lessons for women, rather than marking passages, and showing it to the men in our lives, I recommended that those parts that mean the most to you become the parts that you study so that you demonstrate what matters most to you ' he will be more receptive by this method.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating but not representative
Review: I finally picked up Fear of Flying at the library after hearing about it for decades. I stayed up til 3am reading in fascination, but the shallowness and self-absorption of Isadora didn't describe most of the women I know. Her sexual life and fantasies seem more masculine than feminine, especially her desire for completely anonymous sex. Isadora is an unflattering stereotype of women, showing them as neurotic, masochistic, indecisive, and frivolous. There was little material concerning the objectification of women or the desire to have an authentic and soulful relationship, topics which concern many women. There are some insights and intelligent writing, but overall Isadora doesn't represent most women I know.
Rating:
Summary: Kind....Sorta
Review: Fear of Flying is a book I liked and could not not understand at the same time. It offered women in a different prospective, but it was more laughter than powering.
Rating:
Summary: Mirror on the female soul/The neuroses of intelligent women
Review: The beautiful thing about 'Fear of Flying' is that, if you are an intelligent, educated woman, you will see yourself in it and its protagonist, Isadora. All the more so if you are in your 20s or 30s, a career woman, and/or entertain artistic ambitions. As you read, you will find yourself constantly smiling in recognition and nodding in agreement and understanding. 'Fear of Flying' captures the thoughts, fears, obsessions and self-destructions that all women indulge in but are afraid to admit. The great liberation I found in Erica Jong's novel was not the zipless f uck but rather "Wow, it's not just me!" about the stewing insecurity under the veneer of confidence and success. And, by itemizing those insecurities, she castrates them of their power. 'Fear of Flying' is not about sex but, rather, how women seek to define and obliterate themselves through sex and through love. Isadora's sexual journey is pretty tame and ultimately not very liberating, and therein is the book's main point. Women will find 'Fear of Flying' affirming, and men should read it to better understand how women process their emotions and experiences. It would make a great gift for the well-intentioned but clueless boyfriend or husband. The narrative in 'Fear of Flying' is a bit wanting, albeit it is an idea-driven, not story-driven, novel. The Freudian aspect is also a bit overdone; it dates the book in this era of pop psychology and self-help, and is confusing to this generation no longer schooled in Fruedian theory. Nonetheless, it is an amazing book. Sadly, the need for women to learn to live within themselves, to claim their own destinies, remains as controversial a topic as it was decades ago. We haven't come that far, baby.
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Summary: A MUST Read for every guy
Review: I recomend this book to every guy I know. IT'S GREAT!!
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Summary: My Life in Terms of Analysts
Review: I was 16 years old when I first read this book. Having found it in a thrift shop in upsate NY, and having been fascinated by the naked torso on the cover, I spent 25 cents on this book. The most valuable 25 cents of my life! I started college and from the very beginning declared myself a psychology major with a minor in human sexuality. Why???? Because reading this book, I BECAME Isadora, fell in love with Freud, realized that a Zipless F*** is one of my goals in life, and that even an analyst needs an analyst (which practically guarantees me a job for life). This book changed my life, and i truly recommend that everybody, even just on the brink of sexuality, read it. To those on that five year marriage barrier, where "they have to decide whether to buy new sheets and stick it out or throw the old ones out and split up" (and thats a qoute from the book), this book will lay everything out in witty and sarcastic laymans' terms. It changed my life, it might (most likely will) change yours. READ IT!!
Rating: 
Summary: You ought to read this if....
Review: You've ever studied feminism-- you're interested in how women's fantasy-life works, you are a woman, you are a man who wants to understand women (or not), you think that perhaps you need a new man/woman in your life to complete you, you need to be completed by yourself, you think maybe you're crazy but aren't sure the therapist is working.... you have these long, detailed fantasies about..... This book, considered a consciousness-raising classic of the second wave of feminism by some and smut by others (as the author discusses in the intro), is well-written, analyzes some of the best parts of an individual (who happens to be a budding "lady writer")and who discovers herself (quite accidentally in some ways). It does have some rather strongly worded fantasies-- and one could probably go on for days about the *potentials* of the ZF (and not look at the pool guy/girl the same way again)-- but in all, it's truly a story about identity, the truth behind our fantasies, and how a woman of the 1970's era (and unfortunately for our progress, today too) sometimes gets by (or fails to) in life. I enjoyed the first half immensely, found myself skimming a little in the middle part (not as gripping because it was painful to witness) and was interested enough by the end to want to know what happened after the book's last page ended. So give it a go-- and when you see the rest of us in elevators smirking, you might wonder why.
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Summary: Precursor to 'Sex & the City'
Review: I was on an Antarctic research vessel and came across (so to speak) this book in the ship's library. What a find! I kept sneaking back to my cabin all through the day and staying up too late at night to keep reading it. It's been a long time since I've been this interested in a book on so many levels. It's smart, witty, honest, sexy, introspective, insightful and above all, laugh-out-loud funny (the scene in which Pia, Isadora and the boys make an "exquisite corpse" story is priceless).
In the character of Isadora Wing, Jong has given all commitment phobes a heroine that they can relate to: she is NOT crazy, she is NOT fickle, she is just painfully aware that there is only one time around on the ride of life and wants to make sure she gets the most out of it (think Carrie Bradshaw decades before there ever was Carrie Bradshaw).
The plot of the story is great, but the best parts are Jong's observations on the pursuit of sex, love, self, and good writing. Any writer who has ever experienced the fear of facing a blank sheet of paper, of believing that anything you have to say is worth saying, should read this book. Erica Jong is a smart, talented and witty writer.
Rating:
Summary: You might want to skip the middle.
Review: Fear of Flying is a good book. Not great, not terrible. It had a chance to be great, don't get me wrong. The trouble is, it's a book about a woman realizing that her liberation is incomplete. Which means that she spends a considerable amount of time realizing this (chapters 5-12, about 120 pages of the book). The rest of the book is great, but during most of the middle, she's being dragged around Europe by someone who won't even remember her name (though he does try). She's not liberated until the last few chapters, and by then, we sensitive males have grown tired of Isadora being subjugated. Why isn't she strong? Why doesn't she see through everything? If you want to read this book to see what strong women really think, you'll get disappointed and depressed by the time you get to chapter 12. Until then, Isadora doesn't want to control, she wants to be controlled, and that is exactly what I expected this book to counter. Read the beginning, read the end, skip the middle, if you like. You won't miss much...when FOF is good, it's very, VERY good. When it's bad--eh, it's good afternoon reading.
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