‘Dying’ for senior sex in Jong’s latest novel
Four decades after ‘Flying,’ getting old replaces getting it on
Erica Jong’s ribald, raunchy novel Fear of Flying coined an unprintable phrase for sex without emotional entanglement and made her a feminist literary lioness in 1973.
Jong’s latest novel, Fear of Dying, is the story of actress Vanessa Wonderman, 60, happily married to the wonderful and wealthy Asher … and longing for more. Asher is 20 years older than Vanessa and they read obits together more often than they make love. Vanessa’s parents are declining, as is her beloved dog, Belinda.
Vanessa’s best friend is Isadora Wing, the heroine of Fear of Fly
ing whose pursuit of the magical sexual encounter propelled her into an affair at a therapists’ convention. But that was four decades ago. This time, older and wiser Isadora acts as an adviser and shaman to Vanessa.
Against her friend’s advice, Vanessa turns to a website called Zipless, inspired by Isadora’s signature catchphrase (the zipless, uh, sex act), in hopes of finding a discreet gentleman to “celebrate eros one afternoon a week.”
Zipless.com is about as satisfying as Tinder, if you read Vanity
Fair’s recent takedown of the sexswipe site. Zipless’ potential dates for Vanessa include a relentless sadist, aman who wants to be her personal slave (not as good as it sounds, warns Isadora) and another who says what she really needs is Jesus.
In Flying as in Dying, sex without connection is not the answer.
Jong’s passages about the humor and heartbreak of growing older are knowing, soul-baring, moving and funny. Vanessa gets a face lift, which “stacks up there with all the other female rituals — genital mutilation, footbinding, whalebone corsets, Spanx.” Amid the agony of watching her parents diminish and die, “the gradual transformation of a difficult parent into a demi-saint,” Vanessa muses about beloved daughter Glinda’s struggle with addiction, becomes a grandmother and fights with her sisters about money and pearls.
The book also takes some illadvised turns and, here, Dying is just dying for a stronger editor’s hand. Isadora sends Vanessa a spacey sci-fi missive via email that inexplicably gets snapped up byHollywood.
Vanessa gets her groove back on a spiritual retreat to holy caves in India. If you are intrigued by this sometimes maddening journey, by all means, overcome your fears.