18 Riveting Reads to Pick Up This November
Bond, James Bond, is back, in a novel by William Boyd; Erica Jong's revolutionary Fear of Flying turns 40; Dave Eggers imagines a scary feature that feels all too real; and more riveting literature to read this month.
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Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition
Forty years ago it was mandatory reading. We had
Roe v. Wade and
The Joy of Sex and then protagonist Isadora Wing, irreverent libertine, neurotic analysand, a sexy New York smartie whose nipples are erect by paragraph two. Sentences like "My underpants were wet enough to mop the streets of Vienna"? That was new. So was the "zipless fuck"—anonymous sex, sex like a man. But Wing's not entirely like the
Girls she paved the way for. She has to like the guy, which makes us like her even more. Decades later, casual sex may be the norm, but it can't hold a candle to when you feel it in your heart, too, which is among the many reasons
Flying still soars.
Three editions:
— Patricia Volk
Published 10/31/2013