Any Woman's Blues [Hardcover]

Erica Jong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1990

Any Woman's Blues, first published in 1990, is a tale of addiction and narcissism-the twin obsessions of ourage. World-famous folk singer Leila Sand emerged from the sixties and seventies with addictions to drugs and booze. Leila's latest addiction is to a younger man who leaves her sexually ecstatic but emotionally bereft. The orgasmic frenzies trump the betrayals, so she keeps coming back for more.

Eventually, Leila frees herself by learning the rules of love, the Twelve Steps, and the Key to Serenity in an odyssey that takes her from AA meetings to dens of sin, parties with "names" worth dropping, and erotic gondola rides.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jong ( Fanny ; Serenissima ) has consistently profiled clever and libidinous heroines who engage in series of bold adventures while striving toward self-knowledge and fulfillment. Once again she pens an amusing, picaresque novel that begs readers to take her seriously and appreciate her intellect; the story contains countless literary allusions and knowing references to culture high and low. Readers can also depend on heaping helpings of Jong's trademark approach to sex: superficially humorous yet deadly serious. She also plays Philip Roth-like games with the narrative, prefacing the novel with a mock-scholarly foreward to explain that the text has been pieced together following the death of its author, Isadora Wing, and interlarding the narrative with Socratic dialogues between Isadora and her heroine, a famous painter called Leila Sand. Leila battles addictions to an abusive lover and to alcohol; her fruitless search for "ecstasy, skinlessness" takes her through hellish liaisons and sadomasochistic encounters. Salvation comes in the form of Alcoholics Anonymous and the kindness of friends. The result verges on self-parody. As Fear of Flying was of and for the '70s, this book is clearly intended to address women's issues of the '90s. But somewhere along the way Jong has become less astute an observer of the times and more a self-obsessed chronicler. 75,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Leila Sand's "blues" aren't like those of any other. She's a world-class artist, a 40-something beauty with a 20-something lover, a mother of irresistible twin daughters, and a loyal friend with an unwavering support network. She's also a woman with a few addictions. In this latest novel, told as a roman a clef by Isadora Wing (of Jong's earlier books), Jong takes on the in-vogue themes of addiction, codependency, and recovery. But in Leila's journey from insanity to serenity, something doesn't ring true: her blue's simply aren't blue enough. It's as if our heroine just said "no" to addiction and then resumed her life with everything intact. This work begins with lots of promise, and the narrative is jazzed up with Jong's trademark raucous exploits and on-the-mark observations; the running theme of duality also adds interest. The narrative slips, however, when Leila joins Alcoholics Anonymous and does not itself recover in time for Jong's tidy finish. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/89.
- Michele Lodge, New York
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 362 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (February 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060162724
• ISBN-13: 978-0060162726
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #855,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ERICA JONG
(Bio used www.ericajong.com)
Erica 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, seven 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, The New York Times Book Review and The Wall Street Journal.
In her groundbreaking first novel, Fear of Flying (20 million in print around the world 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. Erica's latest book, 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.
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 2008, 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 U.S., 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.

Known for her commitment to women's rights, authors' rights and free expression, Ms. Jong is a frequent lecturer in the U.S. and abroad. She served as president of The Authors' Guild from 1991 to 1993 and still serves on the Board. She established a program for young writers at her alma mater, Barnard College. The Erica Mann Jong Writing Center at Barnard teaches students the art of peer tutoring and editing.
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. In June 2009, Erica won the first Fernanda Pivano Prize for Literature in Italy.

Currently Ms. Jong is working on a novel featuring "a woman of a certain age." Its working title is secret. Fear of Flying is in preparation as a BBC mini-series. Her first anthology, Sugar In My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex, will be published on June 14th, 2011.
Erica Jong lives in New York City and Weston, CT with her husband, attorney Ken Burrows, and standard poodle, Belinda Barkowitz. Her daughter, Molly Jong-Fast, is also a writer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Can You Say...Self-Aggrandizing??, May 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Any Woman's Blues (Paperback)

This is my least favorite of Jong's novels. The heroine, Leila Sand, is thoroughly baffling; too arrogant to be likable, too appeasing & long-suffering to seem hateful, not easy to relate to or sympathize with. There's no "rootin' interest" here...Leila drinks, drugs, paints, gallivants and occasionally plays with her twins. The Twelve-Step talk is heavy-handed, doesn't translate well here and comes off all wrong somehow. There are so many dangling story lines that there's no closure or relief in sight.

Having said all that, I read it cover to cover in one sitting, never lost interest, enjoyed the satellite characters & got off on some of the humor. Jong at her worst will do this much for me. So it's an okay read. But nowhere near the integrity and poignance of Fear of Flying, Parachutes & Kisses and How to Save Your Own Life. Not even close.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One hell of a good book, July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Any Woman's Blues (Paperback)

Any Woman's Blues packs a punch like no other. Erica Jong has always had the talent for relentless honesty and in this book she bravely goes where most writers fear to tread. She doesn't dwell on psychotic mind-sets that the average person can only imagine; she goes places where we all go every day of our lives. Her heroine is steeped with self-doubt, fear, loneliness. In short, she is just like the rest of us. That is why her triumps and setbacks reach us so deeply. That is what Erica Jong's gift is all about.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Obsession and 'Blues' Go Together, or Do They?, November 17, 2004

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Any Woman's Blues (Hardcover)

In ANY WOMAN'S BLUES, you can learn (if you pay attention) the 'Rules of Love,' the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the 'Key to Serenity,' typical of the high-life of the nineties. I'm glad mine wasn't played out on that level.

Willie Dixon wrote, "the blues ain't nothing but the facts of life." She quotes a lot of old 'blues' lyrics from the twenties and even 'Down in the Dumps' from 1958. We all have moods intermittently. She felt that every character in every book is a part of that mysterious mosaic we call our 'self.' For the most part, I believe this, too, but usually associate it with first novels.

In 1973, Erica Jong wrote her debut novel, FEAR OF FLYING, in which she taught us how to fly -- her way. Seventeen years later, here she comes again but this time, she shows us how to land.

In between, she had five poetry books and five other novels published. In them, she dared to explore realms which other writers were afraid to explore. She's had a following of devoted readers who appreciate her wit, insights, and ability to tackle important and difficult subjects such as divorce, adultery, and miracles. Serenissina (about Venice) is one of her best novels, in my opinion. Some of the poetry, I found a little hard to understand, as in WITCHES.

To say she is a complicated writer, praised by John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Henry Miller, and other notables is putting it mildly. If you've read Updike, consider a female verison on similar themes. Later, she wrote about Henry Miller in THE DEVIL AT LARGE, and INVENTING MEMORY about Mothers and Daughters.

In this one, she goes from highs to lows emotionally and almost loses her grip on sanity and self-destruct on alcohol and co- dependency. I was codependent once but not in the way her artist/mother is. Not on a younger lover, but on my youngest son who was my 'whole life,' You can never put that burden on another person; then when they are no longer there, you feel you can't survive alone. But you can!

The young stud Donezal leaves her feeling worthless, betrayed and empty. That's the folly of loving a younger man. This woman has lived the high life (as opposed to my meager existence in a small Southern town) from glittering parties in East Village nightclubs with celebrities to unusual and the bizarre. Guess that's what drinking people do when drugs are involved.

This book is about obsession, as in my previous review by the Canadian writer. She, too, daubled in poetry. I've never had an obsession per se, though I have had 'attachments.' My husband had a different kind of obsession. As far as I know, any obsession is a form of illness.

She learns, however, that the secret of happiness was not to be found in the illusion of 'the perfect man' but rather in finding strength within one's self. Its theme surrounding the artist's search for a way out of addictive love and toward self-love is characteristic of this writer, I've found.

Most writers use this means of creative expression to resolve conflicts at the particular time through which daily life takes him or her. Since this volume of smush (my word), she's written a mid-life "memoir" and other involved stories.

This tale has no end. Like Chinese boxes within boxes, like Russian dolls within dolls, we go on revealing our hearts in the hope they may never stop beating. If you want a mantra, repeat "thank you" 104 times (which she does) to feel more grateful, more and more alive. Who else would have thought of doing that? It's certainly original.