Perhaps the author would be accused of button-pushing or seeking attention, but not of trying to pull down society as a whole.įor all of theirs upon that die is thrown,Īnd if 'tis lost, life hath no more to bringĪnd their revenge is as the tiger's spring,ĭeadly, and quick, and crushing yet, as real A profanity-laced story, full of shocking confessional scenes, with characters who refuse to recognize societal boundaries and go still (mostly) unpunished for their transgressions would not be considered unique in this century. It's a challenge to read this now and keep in mind that the things the author was doing in the 1960s was considered far out of bounds, because of all the novels which she helped inspire in the years since. By the end of her misadventures, I got the sense that she was going to try something different for a change in hopes that she might have a hope of happiness. Each of these guys is described with an instinct for depicting the deep possessiveness, amounting to creepiness, that constitutes a recurring theme in her life. Gradually, in fits and starts, Isadora invents a way to define who she is independent of the men around her. It deserves its shocking reputation even all these years later, with a relish for scatology reminiscent of Rabelais, always with a commitment to tell the emotional truth about the main character's life. An exploration into the psychology of a woman finding herself, at the vanguard of the feminist movement of the 1960s.

Fear of Flying by Erica Jong