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Parachutes & Kisses
Married (again) and divorced (again), Isadora Wing is a single parent with an adorable daughter, an irritating ex-husband, and a startling assortment of suitors: an unorthodox rabbi, a poetic disc jockey, the son of a famous sex therapist, and WASPily handsomest of all: Berkeley Sproul III. Isadora and Berkeley meet at a health club, and he's fourteen years her junior. Of course their affair is tortuous and sexy, but is it love? Or does the stud just want a free trip to Venice, compliments of a famous author? Either way, Erica Jong wrote this romance with "a mixture of eloquence and savage wit as good as anything she has ever written," said The Wall Street Journal.
416 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1984
About the author
Erica Jong
116 books821 followersErica Jong—novelist, poet, and essayist—has consistently used her craft to help provide women with a powerful and rational voice in forging a feminist consciousness. She has published 21 books, including eight novels, six volumes of poetry, six books of non-fiction and numerous articles in magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times, the Sunday Times of London, Elle, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.
In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (which has sold twenty-six million copies in more than forty languages), she introduced Isadora Wing, who also plays a central part in three subsequent novels—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman's Blues. In her three historical novels—Fanny, Shylock's Daughter, and Sappho's Leap—she demonstrates her mastery of eighteenth-century British literature, the verses of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek lyric, respectively. A memoir of her life as a writer, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, came out in March 2006. It was a national bestseller in the US and many other countries. Erica’s latest book, Sugar in My Bowl, is an anthology of women writing about sex, has been recently released in paperback.
Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.
Her works have appeared all over the world and are as popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries as they have been in the United States and Western Europe. She has lectured, taught and read her work all over the world.
A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica’s archival material was acquired by Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers’ archives.
Calling herself “a defrocked academic,” Ms. Jong has partly returned to her roots as a scholar. She has taught at Ben Gurion University in Israel, Bennington College in the US, Breadloaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont and many other distinguished writing programs and universities. She loves to teach and lecture, though her skill in these areas has sometimes crowded her writing projects. “As long as I am communicating the gift of literature, I’m happy,” Jong says. A poet at heart, Ms. Jong believes that words can save the world.
In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (which has sold twenty-six million copies in more than forty languages), she introduced Isadora Wing, who also plays a central part in three subsequent novels—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman's Blues. In her three historical novels—Fanny, Shylock's Daughter, and Sappho's Leap—she demonstrates her mastery of eighteenth-century British literature, the verses of Shakespeare, and ancient Greek lyric, respectively. A memoir of her life as a writer, Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life, came out in March 2006. It was a national bestseller in the US and many other countries. Erica’s latest book, Sugar in My Bowl, is an anthology of women writing about sex, has been recently released in paperback.
Erica Jong was honored with the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature. She has also received Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize, also won by W.S. Merwin and Sylvia Plath. In France, she received the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence and in Italy, she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature. The City University of New York awarded Ms. Jong an honorary PhD at the College of Staten Island.
Her works have appeared all over the world and are as popular in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, and other Asian countries as they have been in the United States and Western Europe. She has lectured, taught and read her work all over the world.
A graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University's Graduate Faculties where she received her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature, Erica Jong also attended Columbia's graduate writing program where she studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz and Mark Strand. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica’s archival material was acquired by Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be available to graduate and undergraduate students. Ms. Jong plans to teach master classes at Columbia and also advise the Rare Book Library on the acquisition of other women writers’ archives.
Calling herself “a defrocked academic,” Ms. Jong has partly returned to her roots as a scholar. She has taught at Ben Gurion University in Israel, Bennington College in the US, Breadloaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont and many other distinguished writing programs and universities. She loves to teach and lecture, though her skill in these areas has sometimes crowded her writing projects. “As long as I am communicating the gift of literature, I’m happy,” Jong says. A poet at heart, Ms. Jong believes that words can save the world.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
October 17, 2010
I was in high school when Fear of Flying came out and reading it was a bit of a rite of passage. Most of us, lacking any actual sex scenes of our own, read about Isadora's without any informed idea as to their accuracy. I read Parachutes & Kisses in my mid-twenties, and it has a special spot in my memory for how accurate it was. Not about sex. To be honest, I don't remember what I thought of the sex in the book at all. However, in my mid-twenties I gave birth to my daughter by C-section, right at the height of everyone extolling the glories of natural childbirth. Stories, both true and fictional, about natural childbirth were, pardon the pun, popping out all over the place. There was a judgmental attitude towards women who ended up taking painkillers at all during labour and who ended up having C-sections. It was easy to feel disappointed, cheated even, that I ended up having a C-section after 50 hours of labour. Implicitly, I had failed and my body had failed me. About six months later I picked up Parachutes & Kisses and could tell early on in the story that at some point a description of Isadora giving birth was in store. I braced myself for the inevitable natural childbirth scene, the "summitting Everest without oxygen while listening to Beethoven's 9th symphony" combination of accomplishment and awe that such descriptions were loaded with at the time. Instead, I felt so grateful when Isadora, after a long labour, had a C-section in a passage written by someone who has either had one, or talked to someone who has. Jong got it right, down to how much you feel during one and describing how much longer it takes to get all the various layers stitched up than it does to get the baby out. As an author, Jong could have shaped Isadora's story any way she chose, and she chose, for whatever reason, to go against the trend of the time by including a C-section. So, although not a particularly memorable book otherwise, this novel gets an extra star from me for the much-needed-at-the-time sense of validation those few pages gave me.
July 27, 2013
Parachutes and Kisses is the third in a series of related "autobiographical novels" by Erica Jong. As with the others, P&K is filled with wonderful insights and many fine sentences. I like reading Erica Jong a lot.
My favorite sequence is when the heroine, Isadora Wing, is in the Soviet Union (before its fall, when it was still the big bad bear) to research the background of her late grandfather, who left Odessa as a teenager.
But the pleasure of this novel is offset for me, at least a little bit, by a character toward its end, identified here as "Bean." (He shows up in a slightly different guise in the next in this series of novels, Any Woman's Blues.) To be simple and blunt, Bean is an asshole. Since I know what he's capable of (in the next book) his appearance is unwelcome, even if he is based on a real guy, and even if the events described probably happened, more or less the way they're described.
It isn't just that this guy is an asshole, though. Gotta have some sort of opposition, or villain – something – or what's the point, right? So no, it isn't just that. And it isn't the graphic sex – I'm no prude. No, it's the way Erica/Isadora relates to this guy that really turns me off.
I think most of us, at some point in our lives, have known people who fall into a new relationship – and proceed to act like no one else gets it, that no one else has ever been in love the way they are in love. This is how Bean and Isadora relate. It isn't just that, though. Frankly, it's Jong's repeated use of the word astound that really irked me. "...They astounded themselves by fucking so madly and so often that they were too sore to sightsee [in Venice]. Once, twice, three times, four, five, and six times a day was not enough..." Earlier they astounded themselves by how well they "fit" together, and how well they get along. Astounding. I reached a point where I thought, If I read how astounded these idiots are one more time, I'm gonna throw this fucking book across the room!
Then again, maybe I'm just jealous. Don't we all want some demon lover to keep things interesting?
My favorite sequence is when the heroine, Isadora Wing, is in the Soviet Union (before its fall, when it was still the big bad bear) to research the background of her late grandfather, who left Odessa as a teenager.
But the pleasure of this novel is offset for me, at least a little bit, by a character toward its end, identified here as "Bean." (He shows up in a slightly different guise in the next in this series of novels, Any Woman's Blues.) To be simple and blunt, Bean is an asshole. Since I know what he's capable of (in the next book) his appearance is unwelcome, even if he is based on a real guy, and even if the events described probably happened, more or less the way they're described.
It isn't just that this guy is an asshole, though. Gotta have some sort of opposition, or villain – something – or what's the point, right? So no, it isn't just that. And it isn't the graphic sex – I'm no prude. No, it's the way Erica/Isadora relates to this guy that really turns me off.
I think most of us, at some point in our lives, have known people who fall into a new relationship – and proceed to act like no one else gets it, that no one else has ever been in love the way they are in love. This is how Bean and Isadora relate. It isn't just that, though. Frankly, it's Jong's repeated use of the word astound that really irked me. "...They astounded themselves by fucking so madly and so often that they were too sore to sightsee [in Venice]. Once, twice, three times, four, five, and six times a day was not enough..." Earlier they astounded themselves by how well they "fit" together, and how well they get along. Astounding. I reached a point where I thought, If I read how astounded these idiots are one more time, I'm gonna throw this fucking book across the room!
Then again, maybe I'm just jealous. Don't we all want some demon lover to keep things interesting?
November 1, 2015
I've always loved Erica Jong and have often said that reading her has felt like sharing notes with a sister, but Parachutes and Kisses didn't quite cut it for me. It dragged on far too long, and made Isadora Wing seem far less independent and likeable than the first two books in the series did. Though judging the book by the likeability of its protagonist may be unfair - it's never been Isadora's job to be something as plebeian as likeable, and Jong is very honest, sometimes embarrassingly so, about the weaknesses and failings of her alter ego. This is why Fear of Flying was so relatable - Isadora was imperfect, often scared, always hilarious. I'm not sure what the false note is in Parachutes and Kisses, but some such note has certainly been struck. She starts off missing her husband terribly (they are now separated), takes several lovers of varying ages, statuses, backgrounds, and then falls for a boy toy on whom Jong has certainly spent about 100 pages too many.
Still, 2 stars for the passages that resonated most with me... I think of Bean saying, "There's nothing at all wrong with us... sometimes perfection is harder to take than imperfection, and love is harder to take than heartbreak." And of course, Jong's emphatic sign-off, representative perhaps of Isadora's popularity among readers: "We may be monogamous in life, but all bets are off in dreams."
Still, 2 stars for the passages that resonated most with me... I think of Bean saying, "There's nothing at all wrong with us... sometimes perfection is harder to take than imperfection, and love is harder to take than heartbreak." And of course, Jong's emphatic sign-off, representative perhaps of Isadora's popularity among readers: "We may be monogamous in life, but all bets are off in dreams."
July 23, 2007
"One must look, but one must also leap. One MUST go a-roving late into the night."
May 6, 2021
Terzo e ultimo libro della trilogia dedicata alle avventure di Isadora Wing, anche se in effetti poi i romanzi della scrittrice statunitense sono tutti a sfondo autobiografico quindi si potrebbe dire che anche quelli dopo fanno tutti parte dello stesso filone.
Isadora Wing è alle prese con la crisi del suo terzo matrimonio. Il marito Josh, che abbiamo lasciato giovane, intelligente e molto innamorato alla fine dell'ultimo libro, è diventato un marito e padre insoddisfatto, soprattutto per la sua carriera letteraria molto al di sotto di quella invece di Isadora. Dal canto suo, lei, invece, potrebbe dire di avere tutto e invece, come tante donne, non solo deve dividersi tra tutti i suoi compiti ma ha anche un marito che non solo non la sostiene ma addirittura le invidia e le rinfaccia il suo maggiore successo. Con il divorzio, Isadora si ritrova da sola a gestire tutto...
Sarà che quando leggo molti libri della stessa storia finisce che al 90% dei casi mi stufo della storia, però questo è probabilmente quello che mi è piaciuto meno. Isadora è alle prese con i problemi comuni a tutte le donne del mondo, l'affrontare la solitudine, il doversi sentire in colpa perché libera e di successo, e non potersi nemmeno incazzare come si deve perché si farebbe la figura dell'idiota, di quella debole. Ci si ritrova tantissimo in questo libro e a parte qualche scena esageratamente sincera (non sono certo una puritana ma, senza spoiler, sulla fine avrei gradito meno dettagli...) rimane come gli altri, un libro sincero sula vita sentimentale e sessuale di una donna. E' un libro del 1984 ma per molte cose è ancora estremamente attuale.
E adesso, prima di leggere altro della Jong, credo che mi darò un periodo di pausa... non che mi mancano altri libri da leggere!
Isadora Wing è alle prese con la crisi del suo terzo matrimonio. Il marito Josh, che abbiamo lasciato giovane, intelligente e molto innamorato alla fine dell'ultimo libro, è diventato un marito e padre insoddisfatto, soprattutto per la sua carriera letteraria molto al di sotto di quella invece di Isadora. Dal canto suo, lei, invece, potrebbe dire di avere tutto e invece, come tante donne, non solo deve dividersi tra tutti i suoi compiti ma ha anche un marito che non solo non la sostiene ma addirittura le invidia e le rinfaccia il suo maggiore successo. Con il divorzio, Isadora si ritrova da sola a gestire tutto...
Sarà che quando leggo molti libri della stessa storia finisce che al 90% dei casi mi stufo della storia, però questo è probabilmente quello che mi è piaciuto meno. Isadora è alle prese con i problemi comuni a tutte le donne del mondo, l'affrontare la solitudine, il doversi sentire in colpa perché libera e di successo, e non potersi nemmeno incazzare come si deve perché si farebbe la figura dell'idiota, di quella debole. Ci si ritrova tantissimo in questo libro e a parte qualche scena esageratamente sincera (non sono certo una puritana ma, senza spoiler, sulla fine avrei gradito meno dettagli...) rimane come gli altri, un libro sincero sula vita sentimentale e sessuale di una donna. E' un libro del 1984 ma per molte cose è ancora estremamente attuale.
E adesso, prima di leggere altro della Jong, credo che mi darò un periodo di pausa... non che mi mancano altri libri da leggere!
December 21, 2009
The main reason I'm not giving this book just one star is because I didn't completely loathe it, but I certainly did not like it very much. So perhaps I'd give it 1 1/2 stars.
Ms. Jong should've stopped writing about Isadora White Stollerman Wing Ace when readers only knew her as Isadora Wing in "Fear of Flying." The more I've read about Isadora the more love sick, desperate, needy, man-hungry, and all around annoying she became.
I think one of the major faults of "Parachutes and Kisses" is that the final book (I sincerely hope there will be NO MORE Isadora Wing novels) isn't narrated from Isadora's POV like "Flying" and "How to Save a Life" were. This narrator is repetitive (how many times do I have to read about Isadora's heartache over her latest ex-husband, how she uses men/sex to try and heal the wound, and how many deaths she had to deal with in one year?), likes to quote European or 18th/19th century lit WAY too much, and loves to talk about Isadora's trendy, fame, and money filled lifestyle now that she's a successful author. She schmoozes, she wines & dines, she has gratuitous sex...a lot, and she's somewhat neglectful of her daughter when it comes to her need of being satisfied, albeit, fulfilled by another man. The Postscript (from 2006) by the author says that this book was to be an ode to the younger man helping an older woman get through divorce. Well, if that was the point this book could've been cut in half and we could've stopped going through her merry-go-round of lovers to her finding Mr. Right Now. This was an issue of mine with "Life" was that Isadora was having so much sex and not finding fulfillment that it was one of her last lovers to help her get through her heartbreak and here we follow the same methodology when I'd hope at her age other things like her daughter would take precedent.
And don't get me started on the chapter about all the crappy nannies she settled with just because she couldn't deal with finding another one and deemed even the most unfit one "not that bad."
In the midst of all the name dropping, old-school literary references, fornication after fornication, wallowing in self-pity and "Jewish guilt", and unnecessary racial stereotypes like her reference to having to show off her money like ghetto Blacks I was disappointed in the final installment of the Isadora Wing series.
For me "Fear of Flying" definitely hit a nerve and made this character relatable. In "How to Save a Life" she was somewhat relatable but very whiny and sexually active as a way to attempt to get satisfaction and really jab at those she had failed relationships with (foray into same-sex trist was aimed at her mother) and the other ones with men were to get back at her husband at the time, Bennett. This time around she used sex to attempt to heal herself because she "needs" a man in her life. Not to say that that's a bad thing but when you have a child to care for and other responsibilities perhaps a regular lay doesn't have to be at the forefront of one's mind. By this book she is no longer that relatable woman, but a highly irritating one.
After reading two mediocre books about Isadora, I'm ready to go back to the start where I fell in like with her in the first place.
Ms. Jong should've stopped writing about Isadora White Stollerman Wing Ace when readers only knew her as Isadora Wing in "Fear of Flying." The more I've read about Isadora the more love sick, desperate, needy, man-hungry, and all around annoying she became.
I think one of the major faults of "Parachutes and Kisses" is that the final book (I sincerely hope there will be NO MORE Isadora Wing novels) isn't narrated from Isadora's POV like "Flying" and "How to Save a Life" were. This narrator is repetitive (how many times do I have to read about Isadora's heartache over her latest ex-husband, how she uses men/sex to try and heal the wound, and how many deaths she had to deal with in one year?), likes to quote European or 18th/19th century lit WAY too much, and loves to talk about Isadora's trendy, fame, and money filled lifestyle now that she's a successful author. She schmoozes, she wines & dines, she has gratuitous sex...a lot, and she's somewhat neglectful of her daughter when it comes to her need of being satisfied, albeit, fulfilled by another man. The Postscript (from 2006) by the author says that this book was to be an ode to the younger man helping an older woman get through divorce. Well, if that was the point this book could've been cut in half and we could've stopped going through her merry-go-round of lovers to her finding Mr. Right Now. This was an issue of mine with "Life" was that Isadora was having so much sex and not finding fulfillment that it was one of her last lovers to help her get through her heartbreak and here we follow the same methodology when I'd hope at her age other things like her daughter would take precedent.
And don't get me started on the chapter about all the crappy nannies she settled with just because she couldn't deal with finding another one and deemed even the most unfit one "not that bad."
In the midst of all the name dropping, old-school literary references, fornication after fornication, wallowing in self-pity and "Jewish guilt", and unnecessary racial stereotypes like her reference to having to show off her money like ghetto Blacks I was disappointed in the final installment of the Isadora Wing series.
For me "Fear of Flying" definitely hit a nerve and made this character relatable. In "How to Save a Life" she was somewhat relatable but very whiny and sexually active as a way to attempt to get satisfaction and really jab at those she had failed relationships with (foray into same-sex trist was aimed at her mother) and the other ones with men were to get back at her husband at the time, Bennett. This time around she used sex to attempt to heal herself because she "needs" a man in her life. Not to say that that's a bad thing but when you have a child to care for and other responsibilities perhaps a regular lay doesn't have to be at the forefront of one's mind. By this book she is no longer that relatable woman, but a highly irritating one.
After reading two mediocre books about Isadora, I'm ready to go back to the start where I fell in like with her in the first place.
June 7, 2019
OMG I KNOW WHERE FIFTY SHADES OF GREY GOT THE IDEA FOR THE TAMPON SCENE.
If you thought the tampon scene from Fifty was gross, then wait till you hear about this one. It's beyond nasty.
If you want to read the nastiness that is the tampon scene, click here ->
Isadora Wing is a celebrated author who is recovering from the aftershocks of her third divorce. How does a successful, rich and newly single mother cope with such a devastating event? Booze, drugs, and sex. She literally sleeps with every man that she encounters. By 100 pages in, I've lost track of the number of lovers that Isadora was juggling at a time. But none of that seems enough to erase the memory of her third ex-husband, Josh. No matter what she does, she keeps longing for him. For about 300 pages, all Isadora seems to know how to do is have doped-up or drunken sex while pining for Josh.
Of course, by page 300, Isadora finally meets her perfect man. The man that makes her want to end her promiscuity. The man that can finally make her forget about Josh.
I don't know how I managed to read through 500 pages of Isadora's annoying and repetitive 'feminist' rants, complaints, and sexual exploits. She's such an unlikable person - her obsession with Josh, crazy sexual needs and random impulses to quote poetry makes her appear crazy. Not to mention, she's probably the worst mother ever (oh yea, that's right. She has a kid.).
^seriously though. I'm really worried about her kid.
If you thought the tampon scene from Fifty was gross, then wait till you hear about this one. It's beyond nasty.
If you want to read the nastiness that is the tampon scene, click here ->
Isadora Wing is a celebrated author who is recovering from the aftershocks of her third divorce. How does a successful, rich and newly single mother cope with such a devastating event? Booze, drugs, and sex. She literally sleeps with every man that she encounters. By 100 pages in, I've lost track of the number of lovers that Isadora was juggling at a time. But none of that seems enough to erase the memory of her third ex-husband, Josh. No matter what she does, she keeps longing for him. For about 300 pages, all Isadora seems to know how to do is have doped-up or drunken sex while pining for Josh.
"No one else Isadora has slept with since Josh feels quite right to her. The bodies are unfamiliar, the cocks strange; she can never bear to spend the whole night. She wants the man astrally transported out of her arms by three A.M. - so she allows no one to stay with her all night, no one."
Of course, by page 300, Isadora finally meets her perfect man. The man that makes her want to end her promiscuity. The man that can finally make her forget about Josh.
I don't know how I managed to read through 500 pages of Isadora's annoying and repetitive 'feminist' rants, complaints, and sexual exploits. She's such an unlikable person - her obsession with Josh, crazy sexual needs and random impulses to quote poetry makes her appear crazy. Not to mention, she's probably the worst mother ever (oh yea, that's right. She has a kid.).
"Isadora hardly remembers a time in her life when she did so much drugs and booze. It seems her head is always a bit scrambled from dope, a bit woozy with booze. She seems to live in a time-trip o drugs, booze, and sex - in which she can hardly remember what she actually did, what she dreamed, and what she wrote once in a book."
^seriously though. I'm really worried about her kid.
Read
August 31, 2015Parts of this book are laugh-out-loud hilarious, and parts are absolutely maddening. It came out in 1984, sequel to the much-ballyhooed Fear of Flying, and our heroine, Isadora Wing, is clearly Jong's alter ego. She's recently separated from husband number three, a perpetual adolescent she's still pining for, and has a three-year-old daughter she purports to love dearly but who gets very lost in the shuffle. The shuffle of Isadora's sex life, that is - described in exhaustive (sometimes exhausting just to read) detail.
Jong is purportedly a seminal (you should pardon the expression) feminist, but it seems to me that our heroine here, despite all her wealth and beauty, is still waiting for men to define her life. I kept reading because... well, it was extremely entertaining, but I kept muttering to myself about how self-absorbed Isadora was and wondering how, even with all her fame and fortune, she's made such weird choices and then continues to bitch about the results.
Looking up the author just now, I see that she has a new novel, Fear of Dying, coming out in September...
Jong is purportedly a seminal (you should pardon the expression) feminist, but it seems to me that our heroine here, despite all her wealth and beauty, is still waiting for men to define her life. I kept reading because... well, it was extremely entertaining, but I kept muttering to myself about how self-absorbed Isadora was and wondering how, even with all her fame and fortune, she's made such weird choices and then continues to bitch about the results.
Looking up the author just now, I see that she has a new novel, Fear of Dying, coming out in September...
July 24, 2009
Erica Jong is one of my favorite authors, and of all her books this is by far the worst (or maybe I'm just not the right audience). Usually teeming with equal parts sex and introspection, this book was mostly about how women change after motherhood (boring) and about finding oneself again after heartbreak (blah).
January 19, 2009
I might not have finished this book if I did not get the flu and long periods of time to read it. I did not like it as much as the previous two. She is truly an intelligent and interesting writer. Once I got used to the abundance of c-words, I enjoyed the plot and the tangents.
March 26, 2009
Not NEARLY as entertaining as Fear of Flying or How to Save Your Own Life, which was disappointing. Isadora grows up, and its pretty boring and sad. I guess thats reality, though.
July 16, 2010
I read this book in 1985 when I was sixteen. My High School English teacher recommended it.
January 18, 2013
My all time favorite character written by my all time favorite author. What's not to love? If you haven't read "Fear of Flying" yet don't even go here.
April 10, 2020
I was disappointed that this was a rambling self-analysis of an over-indulged character, rather than uplifting or inspiring. Well written, just not that interesting.
April 15, 2023
This book was a magnificent piece of literature, IS a magnificent piece of literature. It was very much so love at first page, but like almost every single love story, romance or erotic or sexually related affair (very much so like the ones depicted in this book) it was not un-complicated. <3
When I read the text on the back of the cover of this book, her encounter with an actor at a health club was mentioned. That didn't happen until way after 200 pages! The center of the story was rather her many relations with different men, her tensed relationship with her ex-husband and the father of her daughter Amanda, and the series of babysitters she had and later had to fire for some reason! It was not what I had expected at first, I thought I had a "typical" (in a good way!) novel about a relationship between an author and an actor in the 80s (since that's when it was written and that's when it was set), but I instead got a philosophical very much "stream-of-consciousness" written, sexological and brutally bare and honest mind-diary and nearly life-long story, with many side-tracks and side-events but still it did not feel like that much happened in the book. (It seems nearly self-biographical in a way, which is a very interesting and beautiful trait this book has).
Don't get me wrong, I really liked it, but it was a surprise to me, and it got slow to read at certain parts. But it was A JOURNEY! Through poetry and sex, space and time, artistry and life's many, many challenges. It took me a while to finish, and after having read it for quite a long time, I was a little tired of it. But I really really loved Isadora, and the Venice, Italy-set ending part of the book was beautiful. <3 And it was so interesting to follow this lovely woman, Isadora, on her promiscuous and sexual journey in search for a love that will last, and for drugs that will take the edge of things in a life much too complicated that what she had expected, mainly caused by her a**hole ex-husband Josh (and a very sloppy economical advisor).
All in all, it was a good book. A GREAT book when you know what it's all about. And it had charts of glass in it mirroring the thoughts and mind, and LIFE, of so many artists in the world. Us artists... <3
AND BESIDES! I frankly think this is a book that everyone should read, as part of the common education if you please. Like you know, common knowledge. It is a masterpiece of a work indeed, despite it's long passages that to me seemed dull and boring and juts didn't do it FOR ME. Other than that, the language, the story, that runs so deep within Isadora's soul and search for love, passion, compassion and identity after her grandpa'as passing, it's delicious. The sex is ravishing, unique, authentic and extremely in-your-face in the best way possible. It is a shocking book, especially since it was released over 40 years ago. And I think if it would be released today, it would cause a stir yet again. Even more maybe! And it has a strong sentiment of art and poetry, fiction in the mirrors of life, art in the casting spells of misfortune in everybody's everyday life, that has to be read by mor epeople of today! It is nothing like a modern book, nothing at all, and it could be a great literary experience and a well-needed sexual, sweaty, hard cardio-workout for the brains of today's youth, whose only reading pleasures seems to be simple Instagrampost-captions, Snapchat-conversations and articles about what is and is not allowed in the communistic, radical rulebook of the Gen Z, and the establishment of the Cancel Culture-nuclear bomb.
When I read the text on the back of the cover of this book, her encounter with an actor at a health club was mentioned. That didn't happen until way after 200 pages! The center of the story was rather her many relations with different men, her tensed relationship with her ex-husband and the father of her daughter Amanda, and the series of babysitters she had and later had to fire for some reason! It was not what I had expected at first, I thought I had a "typical" (in a good way!) novel about a relationship between an author and an actor in the 80s (since that's when it was written and that's when it was set), but I instead got a philosophical very much "stream-of-consciousness" written, sexological and brutally bare and honest mind-diary and nearly life-long story, with many side-tracks and side-events but still it did not feel like that much happened in the book. (It seems nearly self-biographical in a way, which is a very interesting and beautiful trait this book has).
Don't get me wrong, I really liked it, but it was a surprise to me, and it got slow to read at certain parts. But it was A JOURNEY! Through poetry and sex, space and time, artistry and life's many, many challenges. It took me a while to finish, and after having read it for quite a long time, I was a little tired of it. But I really really loved Isadora, and the Venice, Italy-set ending part of the book was beautiful. <3 And it was so interesting to follow this lovely woman, Isadora, on her promiscuous and sexual journey in search for a love that will last, and for drugs that will take the edge of things in a life much too complicated that what she had expected, mainly caused by her a**hole ex-husband Josh (and a very sloppy economical advisor).
All in all, it was a good book. A GREAT book when you know what it's all about. And it had charts of glass in it mirroring the thoughts and mind, and LIFE, of so many artists in the world. Us artists... <3
AND BESIDES! I frankly think this is a book that everyone should read, as part of the common education if you please. Like you know, common knowledge. It is a masterpiece of a work indeed, despite it's long passages that to me seemed dull and boring and juts didn't do it FOR ME. Other than that, the language, the story, that runs so deep within Isadora's soul and search for love, passion, compassion and identity after her grandpa'as passing, it's delicious. The sex is ravishing, unique, authentic and extremely in-your-face in the best way possible. It is a shocking book, especially since it was released over 40 years ago. And I think if it would be released today, it would cause a stir yet again. Even more maybe! And it has a strong sentiment of art and poetry, fiction in the mirrors of life, art in the casting spells of misfortune in everybody's everyday life, that has to be read by mor epeople of today! It is nothing like a modern book, nothing at all, and it could be a great literary experience and a well-needed sexual, sweaty, hard cardio-workout for the brains of today's youth, whose only reading pleasures seems to be simple Instagrampost-captions, Snapchat-conversations and articles about what is and is not allowed in the communistic, radical rulebook of the Gen Z, and the establishment of the Cancel Culture-nuclear bomb.
May 4, 2022
Esse livro é um romance autobiográfico e quem segue a trajetória da autora vai reconhecer vários dos comentários que ela faz, devidamente com nomes trocados, sobre o que aconteceu a ela.
O que é fato e o que é romance? Difícil dizer, principalmente porque a escritora faz questão de lembrar que a verdade é mais estranha que a ficção.
Isadora, alter ego de Erica Jong, estrela esse terceiro livro (sendo os dois primeiros Medo de Voar e Salve Sua Vida) com a típica justaposição de fatos e a reconhecível "zeitgeist" dos romances escritos nos anos 80.
Em outras palavras: um monte de psicologia barata, uma vida sexual aberta que abusa do lirismo para desculpar a quebra das regras sociais e por fim, o relato dos problemas que a quebra dos paradigmas provocados pelos anos 60 e 70 causaram. É incrível comentar sobre os seus anos de hippie, mas não tão incrível escrever sobre todas as falhas e deturpações que esse estilo de vida alternativo tem.
Embora extremamente intimista e de uma honestidade crua em relação a si mesmo, onde a autora abusa da esperança apresentada por quem já não tem motivos para tê-la, o livro não tem um motivo para ser.
Como o próprio nome sugere, a personagem principal cai de situação em situação sem ser verdadeiramente a motivadora dos acontecimentos, e sua atitude passiva é enfurecedora pois é mostrada não apenas nela, mas em toda a geração que a cerca.
Pára-quedas e Beijos pode ser intimidante pela trama confusa e, às vezes, repetitiva. Mas isso parece ter sido justamente o objetivo da autora.
O que é fato e o que é romance? Difícil dizer, principalmente porque a escritora faz questão de lembrar que a verdade é mais estranha que a ficção.
Isadora, alter ego de Erica Jong, estrela esse terceiro livro (sendo os dois primeiros Medo de Voar e Salve Sua Vida) com a típica justaposição de fatos e a reconhecível "zeitgeist" dos romances escritos nos anos 80.
Em outras palavras: um monte de psicologia barata, uma vida sexual aberta que abusa do lirismo para desculpar a quebra das regras sociais e por fim, o relato dos problemas que a quebra dos paradigmas provocados pelos anos 60 e 70 causaram. É incrível comentar sobre os seus anos de hippie, mas não tão incrível escrever sobre todas as falhas e deturpações que esse estilo de vida alternativo tem.
Embora extremamente intimista e de uma honestidade crua em relação a si mesmo, onde a autora abusa da esperança apresentada por quem já não tem motivos para tê-la, o livro não tem um motivo para ser.
Como o próprio nome sugere, a personagem principal cai de situação em situação sem ser verdadeiramente a motivadora dos acontecimentos, e sua atitude passiva é enfurecedora pois é mostrada não apenas nela, mas em toda a geração que a cerca.
Pára-quedas e Beijos pode ser intimidante pela trama confusa e, às vezes, repetitiva. Mas isso parece ter sido justamente o objetivo da autora.
December 12, 2017
This is one of the sequels to Fear of Flying. Isadora is now 39, has a young daughter, and her husband of seven years, envious of Isadora's successful career as a writer, has left.
Isadora takes lovers and pines for Josh, and contemplates the liberated woman's problems. I love Isadora's thoughtful ruminations. Every scene of action is made all the better with Isadora's inner reflections and observations, which are perceptive and witty.
One of the ironies Isadora ponders is that the women who "have it all" (as she does), basically have twice the work. A full-time job and all the responsibilities of the children and household (because men don't feel as responsible for the hands-on child-raising and all of that domestic stuff).
This takes place in the early 1980s, and it was fun to see how some things have changed (it's a little more common for a man to be a house-husband nowadays while the kids are young), but also how many things are the same and universally true.
Isadora is vulnerable and strong. She has problems with ridiculous nannies and her writer's block, and men who adore her. Everything is laid bare. The second chapter slows a bit, Isadora reads a long poem at her grandfather's funeral. I was able to patiently stick with it, being in tune with it, as I had just lost Goofy (my cat of 12 years). Isadora then loses her precious dog--lots in here for me to relate to!
Isadora takes lovers and pines for Josh, and contemplates the liberated woman's problems. I love Isadora's thoughtful ruminations. Every scene of action is made all the better with Isadora's inner reflections and observations, which are perceptive and witty.
One of the ironies Isadora ponders is that the women who "have it all" (as she does), basically have twice the work. A full-time job and all the responsibilities of the children and household (because men don't feel as responsible for the hands-on child-raising and all of that domestic stuff).
This takes place in the early 1980s, and it was fun to see how some things have changed (it's a little more common for a man to be a house-husband nowadays while the kids are young), but also how many things are the same and universally true.
Isadora is vulnerable and strong. She has problems with ridiculous nannies and her writer's block, and men who adore her. Everything is laid bare. The second chapter slows a bit, Isadora reads a long poem at her grandfather's funeral. I was able to patiently stick with it, being in tune with it, as I had just lost Goofy (my cat of 12 years). Isadora then loses her precious dog--lots in here for me to relate to!
November 6, 2023
Curiosamente, el título de esta novela está extraído de unos versos de Pablo Neruda y aluden claramente a una relación romántica, un tipo de relación precisamente, que la protagonista de la historia trata de superar sin demasiado éxito, atrapada como está por los convencionalismos culturales de la sociedad patriarcal en la que vive. Y sin embargo, Isadora Wing se debate cuestionándolo todo, mientras se esfuerza en superar un duro proceso de separación y sus funciones maternales.
Isadora Wing es un personaje que ya aparecía como protagonista en dos novelas anteriores de la escritora norteamericana de ascendencia judía Erica Jong, concretamente en la famosa novela debut de la autora, conocida como “Miedo a volar” publicada en 1973, que en su momento causó una gran sensación debido al tratamiento de la sexualidad y el deseo femenino. En “Cómo salvar tu propia vida” (1977) y en “Paracaídas y besos” (1984) Erica Jong sigue la misma tónica, incluyendo numerosos elementos psicológicos para abordar el tema de...
Sigue leyendo en:
https://librosmagazine.wordpress.com/...
Isadora Wing es un personaje que ya aparecía como protagonista en dos novelas anteriores de la escritora norteamericana de ascendencia judía Erica Jong, concretamente en la famosa novela debut de la autora, conocida como “Miedo a volar” publicada en 1973, que en su momento causó una gran sensación debido al tratamiento de la sexualidad y el deseo femenino. En “Cómo salvar tu propia vida” (1977) y en “Paracaídas y besos” (1984) Erica Jong sigue la misma tónica, incluyendo numerosos elementos psicológicos para abordar el tema de...
Sigue leyendo en:
https://librosmagazine.wordpress.com/...
September 2, 2024
Oh, my old friend Erica Jong. I think I first read this book in my early teens, and I don't think I realized until this re-reading how heavily it influenced me. I was implacably hostile to anyone saying I was too young to read anything- but I was too young for this one.
I find now that I don't love Isadora, or even like her a lot of the time, but I still admire her. Not just her sexual audacity (which caused me to choke on my Captain Crunchberries back in the day, and still causes me to pat my chest and fan myself and not always in a good way), but her unsinkability. I didn't seem to absorb that part nearly as well as the 'boink early and often' Female Empowerment messages.
This was my first Erica J. I love her coffee table book 'Witches' and really love her 'Fanny' (next up on my EJ playlist, whoo hoo!). I didn't like Fear of Flying at all, and while I found myself getting occasionally irritated with Isadora this time, I still had a rollicking good time.
Not sure I'll re-read it, but I'm keeping it just in case.
I find now that I don't love Isadora, or even like her a lot of the time, but I still admire her. Not just her sexual audacity (which caused me to choke on my Captain Crunchberries back in the day, and still causes me to pat my chest and fan myself and not always in a good way), but her unsinkability. I didn't seem to absorb that part nearly as well as the 'boink early and often' Female Empowerment messages.
This was my first Erica J. I love her coffee table book 'Witches' and really love her 'Fanny' (next up on my EJ playlist, whoo hoo!). I didn't like Fear of Flying at all, and while I found myself getting occasionally irritated with Isadora this time, I still had a rollicking good time.
Not sure I'll re-read it, but I'm keeping it just in case.
June 26, 2024
Bloated! Fear of flying should be enough to satiate the average reader, pick up how to save your own life if you’re still itching!
Though with the previous two books I wasn’t left all riled up by the sex scenes, there is zero eroticism whatsoever in parachutes of kisses!
Still some great little nuggets, such as a guy saying ‘what a memorable arpeggio - or shall I say cadenza?’ After isadora gives him a bj
Take a shot every time she mentions her waterbed!
Though with the previous two books I wasn’t left all riled up by the sex scenes, there is zero eroticism whatsoever in parachutes of kisses!
Still some great little nuggets, such as a guy saying ‘what a memorable arpeggio - or shall I say cadenza?’ After isadora gives him a bj
Take a shot every time she mentions her waterbed!
September 20, 2020
I consider Erica Jong an American treasure so I can’t really give her less than 4 stars, but wow this book is disappointing. What I really don’t understand is why the switch to 3rd person here when 1st used for this character in previous books?
It’s also just so meandering and tangent-y. Slightly redeemed by trip to Russia in the end.
It’s also just so meandering and tangent-y. Slightly redeemed by trip to Russia in the end.
February 10, 2020
All the 'Isadora Wing' books by Erica Jong have been great reads for this life-long fan! However, I don't expect all the readers of her books will understand. Those that aren't,don't know what they are missing!! (microphone drop)
November 22, 2020
Beautifully written as always for Jong but disappointing follow up to How to Save your own life. I understand the pain of her divorce but instead of an introspective novel she continues to look outside herself for comfort.
September 10, 2019
The move from first person to close third did not serve this book series very well,
July 21, 2021
Still sexy, still insightful, still fresh to the flesh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2022
I'm tidying up my Goodreads. I read this years ago and enjoyed its exhuberance.
October 20, 2023
Very much a plot of its time, this novel still entertained me and some of the prose captured my imagination. A diverting and pleasurable read.
November 9, 2009
Erica Jong always reminds me of an author of “dirty books” and I was excited when I found this book at a local library book sale to see what she was all about. Although there were numerous detailed sexual escapades that Isadora encounters, the story was more of her searching for balance and stability as she is approaching a mature 40 and going through another divorce, but this time with a young daughter to consider. If you haven’t matured or grown up in the 70-80’s some of the issues may be hard to relate to. On a personal note, being a Connecticut native I found some of the story notations especially about the harsh winters amusing.
September 16, 2014
For me Erica jong is always writing about writing, like language poets she is beautifully weaving a story with words about words. she isn't Woolf but she is wonderful in seducing the Demons. In this book however, I cant really see the same spark. My favourite part of this book include the poem about the horses, her relation with her grandfather, the funeral scene and the snow set scenes.
December 1, 2008
I remember truly enjoying this book when I read it...but I was still in high school and probably did not have the best of taste.
I don't really think I'll read it again, although I suppose I should at one point.
I don't really think I'll read it again, although I suppose I should at one point.
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