Written by: Molly Jong-Fast
First line: I am the only child of a once-famous woman.
Why you should read this book: Metaphorically, the experience of reading this book is similar to seeing a horse and a thinking, "that is a cool-looking horse," and then you get on the horse even though you don't really know much about horses, and the horse understands this and takes the opportunity to start galloping through the forest at a breakneck speed and you are dodging branches and hanging on for dear life and yes, it's exhilarating but also terrifying and the horse just keeps going until it's got that all out of its system and then abruptly stops in a beautiful meadow not far from where you parked your car and just acts like everything is copacetic and your nightmare ride never happened. Admittedly, while I was aware of the existence of Erica Jong, the author's once-famous mother, I never actually read any of her books, so all my sympathy and interest was held entirely for Jong-Fast from the beginning, and I both enjoyed and was traumatized by her descriptions of a childhood dictated by her mother's absolute chaotic lifestyle and ability to express love, seamlessly woven together with the story of her adult experience of her mother's dementia and decline. The writing achieves that level of flawlessness that allows you to sink into the narrative without noticing how the author is performing all these magic tricks, and it would have been a good story even if she wasn't a tremendous writer.
Why you shouldn't read this book: You're still trying to impress your narcissistic parent.
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