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.

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.