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There are currently 9 member reviews
for Fear of Dying
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Cheryl M. (Marco Island, FL)
Fear of dying or not having enough sex?
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.
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Jeanne B. (Albuquerque, NM)
Erica, what have you done?!
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.
