Customer Reviews

Any Woman's Blues

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Any Woman's Blues, A Novel of Obsession, is one of the best fiction books ever written in my opinion. I honestly loved this hilarious, entertaining read. I often find many of the Oprah Book Club and NY Times Bestsellers, painfully slow, boring and unable to hold my attention span. Any Woman's Blues, was impossible for me to put down even for one second.

Simply put, if the award winning novels, Snow Falling on Cedars and the DaVinchi Code temporarily cured your insomnia and you still can't figure out why everyone lists those titles as their favorite books, then I highly recommend this witty, vibrant, and honest novel. A perfect lying on the beach/vacation read for any woman!

I've read this book several times over the last ten years. I adore her decriptions of her lust of men, sex, & love. Her prose is shockingly graphic, yet soft. After first reading this years back, I knew I'd never look at a man on a bike (motorcycle) the same way again. <grin>
I won't give a summary of the book- amazon does that already. But pick it up @ your local bookstore & start with the first page. My guess is that you'll eagerly buy it & find it hard to put down.
It's great reading such liberating literature. Such fun to delve into her naughtiness.
Try this timeless erotic tale.

I read very little fiction. For excitement, who could create fiction that would compare to the lives of van Gogh, Charlie Parker, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Scott of the Antarctic, and thousands of other larger than life characters who left their mark on this world.
Once in a while I do read a popular novel like "Valley of the Dolls", and find it to be quite enjoyable...but then again that book like many fictional novels are based on real people.
Erica Jong seems to regard herself as partly a serious artist, and partly a ditsy sex crazed druggie, caught up in the weird New York hip scene of parties, the latest five minute fads,
and a search for a meaningful existence. I think she's more a serious artist than she reveals. To turn out so many books requires lots of hours spent working dilligenly at her desk, and not partying as much as her characters.
She makes no bones about her delight in men, and their bodies. She initially started her writing career with poetry, and once took a writing class with Robert Lowell. Anne Sexton was a fellow student. She was a published poet before "Fear Of Flying".
I liked "Fear of Flying" and "How to Save Your Own Life", and I must say I'm enjoying "Any Women's Blues". This is not great writing, but there's something here that keeps my eye on the page, and I do want to see what happens next.
And it is a good record for the future, of how a certain class of people lived their lives in New York City at the end of the twentieth century. There isn't a trace of phoniness in it, although many of the people she writes about are.
The thing that is surprising, is that the great sex, and being desired by many men is seemingly so unfullfilling to Lelia/Erica. The men all have character flaws that drive her nuts. I think Erica is on her third or fourth husband, and I guess she's going to do it till she gets it right. Meanwhile, her search for the ideal mate in the hip NY/international jet set is worth my time, and yours....as long as your not expecting another "Anna Karenina", "Brothers Karamazov" "Pride and Predjudice".......or even another "Fear of Flying".

There is some intelligence and a few flashes of insight here but on the whole, Jong has created a thin world that revolves around implausible sex. There is something excessive and fantasy-driven and predictable about the way the main character portrays her relationship with the younger man, as well as her portrayal of subsequent liaisons towards the end of the book. I had heard so much about FEAR OF FLYING but thought I would read the less-famous work first. Now, I am less inclined to read FEAR OF FLYING. This should have been an in-depth look at one woman's obsession, an intelligent treatment of lust and sex, but it was simply vacuous. It reminded me of Joan Collins with a bit of an effort at `social observation.'

Erica Jong, although I didn't know who she was before I read this book, I have made a point to buy her other books. This book was Erotic, sexy, adventursome, and imaginative. My wife bought it, but I couldn't put it down once I started it.

Much like "Fear of Flying," Jong's "Any Woman's Blues" asks the reader to reconcile the person they think they should be and the person they want to be. AWB uses the story of Leila to show readers that faults and mistakes ultimately who we are and the more we, as humans, can accept that and learn from it - and not be afraid to fail again - the closer we move to finding ourselves.
I really like Jong. She represents the idea that we are who we are and that life is full of decisions that we really can't stress about because life will continue anyways. Leila teaches about confidence in decisions and taking control of our own existence.
The theme in AWB is quite strong - the plot and characters (other than Leila), maybe not so much. As the reader, I was often didn't know if I was in a flash forward or a flash sideways. There were many side characters that were difficult to keep track of and also to know what they had to do with the larger story at hand. But maybe that is also part of the theme - life is full of banality and insigificances that just don't matter. If we are able to sort out that stuff, ignore it, and concentrate on what really matters we may start to be on the right track. But what really does matter? AWB will let you follow Leila through her life while she tries to figure that out.
Overall this book was allright. I like Jong much more after reading AWB than I did after Fear of Flying so I am willing to take on a third book of hers. Jong has a gift to putting words to emotions that are so true and terrifying that most of us (I say us because I am sure I am not the only one) have experienced and not wished to think about it enough to try to describe it. Hooray for Jong - an assett to men and women alike for not being shy to say what really happens.

I still have not received the item,the seller was very apologetic, I was told it was shipped 6 days ago so maybe I will receive it someday soon