Best of the Backlist Book Club: "Fear of Flying" by Erica Jong
Schedule
Mon Apr 20 2026 at 02:00 pm to 03:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Bookstore1Sarasota | Sarasota, FL
Led by Georgia Court, this book club reads what lasts, not just the latest. This month: a boundary-breaking novel that redefined sexuality.About this Event
The Best of the Backlist Book Club is led by Georgia Court, meant for reading what lasts, not just what's latest. April's selection is Fear of Flying by Erica Jong - the bold, witty, and era-defining novel that cracked open the conversation about women's desire, ambition, and freedom.
Through the voice of Isadora Wing, Jong captures the turbulence of self-discovery with humor and honesty, giving the 1970s feminist movement its most iconic heroine. Half confession, half comedy of liberation, Fear of Flying still feels daring, funny, and true.
We will meet in person at our store location at The Mark, 117 S. Pineapple Ave. The book club is $21, which includes a copy of Fear of Flying to be picked up at Bookstore1 any time before our meeting.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Before Hannah from Girls, Anastasia Steele from Fifty Shades of Grey, and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, there was Isadora Wing, the uninhibited, outspoken protagonist of Erica Jong’s revolutionary novel.
First published in 1973, Fear of Flying caused a national sensation, fueling fantasies, igniting debates about women and sex, and introducing a notorious phrase to the English language. Forty years later, Isadora’s honest and exuberant retelling of her sexual adventures—and misadventures—continues to provoke and inspire, and stands as an iconic tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood. With provocative cover art by illustrator Noma Bar, this special fortieth-anniversary edition will introduce a new generation of women to Jong’s pioneering novel.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
“This book will make literary history…because of it women are going to find their own voice and give us great sagas of sex, life, joy, and adventure.”
–Henry Miller
“There is something about Fear of Flying that remain perpetually relevant. That’s the question of what a young woman should do with herself: how she should reconcile her own ambitions with the dictates of society.”
–Rebecca Mead, Allure
“Transcends being a woman’s book and becomes a latter-day Ulysses, with a female Bloom stumbling and groping, but surviving.”
–Wall Street Journal
“Fearless and fresh”
–John Updike
“A picaresque, funny, touching adventure of Isadora Wing…on the run from her psychoanalyst husband, in quest of joy and her own true self.”
–The New York Review of Books
“The boundary-breaking novel that redefined sexuality.”
–O Magazine
“Extraordinary…at once wildly funny and very wise.”
–Los Angeles Times
“The book that started it all by the woman who started it all. The one absolutely necessary read for any women of any generation who wants to see herself as intellectually and sexually alive—or any man who wants to understand the smart, sexually lively woman. As fresh as the day it was written and unmissable.”
–Naomi Wolf
“A great book, with a warm and funny heroine…It’s simply fun to read the adventures of the deeply likable Isadora Wing, and it’s sexy as hell.”
—NPR Guide to 2013’s Great Reads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Erica Jong is the author of several books of poetry, fiction, and memoir, including Fear of Flying, which has more than 18 million copies in print worldwide. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, and she is a frequent guest on television talk shows. Erica and her lawyer husband live in New York City and Connecticut. Her daughter, Molly Jong-Fast, is also an author.
Where is it happening?
Bookstore1Sarasota, 117 S. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota, United StatesUSD 22.47
