Erica Jong, best-known for her exuberant and shocking first novel, Fear of Flying, has had a long-lasting impact on American literature. That influence has deeply affected the life of her daughter, Molly Jong-Fast. Jong is the author of 27 books. Her best-known accomplishment is the semi-autobiographical novel “Fear of Flying,” which she wrote in 1973. This groundbreaking literary work crystallized a new generation of women. Perhaps most importantly, this performative space reflects Jong’s journey through motherhood, which in turn reflects Jong’s own life experiences.
Born in 1978, Molly Jong-Fast has long been haunted by the trials of her tricky, sometimes explosive, always fascinating familial dynamic. In a recent article, she openly discussed Erica Jong’s struggles as a parent and the impact of her mother’s literary fame on their lives. Jong’s identity as a second-wave feminist—characterized by her affluent background, education, and being a white Jewish woman—has often overshadowed her personal challenges and failures in motherhood.
Per her daddy, novelist Erica Jong’s father, Erica Jong was awful to live with. He told us about the lengths he and Molly’s nanny went to in order to coax Erica into coming home to be with her daughter. When you were young your nanny and I would do everything we could to keep your mother from abusing you. We pushed Lady Bird to limit her to one hour a day with you,” he recalled. Sadly, Erica often could only, with great effort, get 30 minutes tops.
Molly Jong-Fast describes her childhood as marked by neglect, stating, “It was just neglect neglect. Benign makes it sound intentional. Stop saying that.” This wistful evocation goes to the heart of their emotional remoteness that marked their life together. The resulting fame and accolades Erica received for changing the game just increased her pressure to maintain that success. Sadly, this pressure to conform took a toll on Elvira’s familial relationships.
Erica’s personal life has been tumultuous, including her divorce from Jonathan Fast, which led her to write “Megan’s Book of Divorce.” This book was meant to help Molly get through that divorce nightmare. After the divorce, Erica married Ken. They went right out and rented a new apartment and made radical changes, including firing Molly’s nanny within days of moving in.
That dark, fraught relationship between mother and daughter has emerged as a key motif in Molly’s writing. In making sense of what happened to her, she begins to reminisce on how Erica’s obsessive pursuit of literature was put before their family life. Now as an adult, Molly has to fight with these dynamics. She enmeshes her mother’s impact not just into her process but into her tone and subject matter.
Despite the hurdles they had to overcome, Erica Jong’s legacy is hard to overstate when it comes to feminist literature. Her work often explores themes of love and desire, exemplified by her famous quote from “Fear of Flying”: “Underneath it all, you longed to be annihilated by love, to be swept off your feet, to be filled up by a giant prick spouting sperm, soapsuds, silks and satins, and of course, money.” These themes echo throughout both women’s writings.
Now living in an eldercare facility, Erica Jong spends her last years poring over and re-reading journalism. In her advancing years, she has incited a profound reevaluation of her poetics. At the same time, she’s investigating the tricky dynamic that exists between her and Molly. Jong, an acclaimed writer, is haunted by the public perception of her as a bad mom. This artificial divide still shapes how we judge her today.
Molly Jong-Fast uses her own experiences to bring her mother’s achievements into sharper focus. Alongside that praiseworthy list, she shares the emotional and physical toll those successes have taken on them both — personally and politically. In one of her humorous critiques inspired by Erica’s writings, she remarked, “I think divorce is dumb because I never remember where I left my underpants.”