What do readers think of Fear of Dying by Erica Jong? Write your own review.

Now I remember why I dislike Erica Jong's writing. She gets into a meaningful conversation, then slams you with sex. And not nice sex - words no one I know would use. Trying to get around that part, you continue reading. It gets better - almost understandable when you get hit again! Besides the fact that the main character is filthy rich so that her life is foreign to normal people, her language is sickening. Her fear of dying is ridiculous since she's mainly concerned about her ninety-some parents' dying.

I would not say this book is a humorous romp. I found it a rather dark look at how we define ourselves when we reach 60 in a society that is obsessed with youth. How do we prove to ourselves that we are still living the life we want as we age? It is a look at how we deal with death once we realize that no matter what we do death is going to come get us or our loved ones some day. It looks at the things that make life worth the effort. This was a good reminder that we are alive to live not just sit and fear death.

First I must say 'sex' ruined the book for me!
What could have been a poignant and realistic look at death and aging appeared to be less important than the protagonist's sexual needs. This tainted whatever serious point Jong is trying to make. Take away the persistent sex and there could be a universal, feminine message about what it means to see ourselves aging and those we love dying.

This book should be titled fear of aging and loss of sex. It should be marketed to Jewish mothers as a beach read and comedy. I give it 2 stars. Erica Jong gives women a bad name, wallowing in self pity and martyrdom. As her father and mother are dying, her husband is recuperating (but he is 83) she goes on line to find sex. Many women have much worse problems than she, what a pathetic person.

This was a hugely disappointing read! It's barely a novel, more a 60-year old woman's long, whiny monologue about not wanting to get old and die. There are other characters in the book, two-dimensional at best, and things are described as happening from time to time - parents dying, a husband's heart attack - but they don't come alive, they're just pieces of the scaffolding on which to hang the monologue. Which is just embarrassing. A gorgeous 60-year old actress (retired now only because she refuses to play women her age!), married to a billionaire who loves her deeply, basically has a temper tantrum because she can't also have the free and easy sex of her youth with strangers. Already, it sounds like a really bad romance novel. Also, she wants the Fountain of Youth. She wants immortality. She wants her mother's pink pearls. She wants the satisfaction of all her desires immediately, like a two-year old, with no consequences. At age 60, this is just demeaning. It would be wonderful if Jong wrote all this in order to show the narrator achieving a resolution of growth and wisdom and humility. Not to mention gratitude! A tiny bit of this occurs when she finally agrees to find joy in having sex only with her husband (!) but overall the author writes as if her greed, her blind materialism, her vanity, her lack of compassion, her sheer sense of entitlement are not only acceptable traits but actually positive ones. This may reflect the values of some segments of society, but it insults the lives and experiences of a vast majority of women facing aging and dying today. Jong seems to mistake fear of dying for love of living. They're not the same thing at all.