European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Erica Jong still outspoken and outrageous peal wearing thin i did t like her on the show did t like that Blue liar hip. Lender Lough banter that sometimes issues Lor love around her sitcom Home just As i Ive never been Lor the hostile tease that was the part and soul of moonlighting Yel i could always see the Merit in the idea of her the first Post Yuppie Post aerobics mainstream Ime Dienne a standup. Toul moulded liberation so. A freezable Joan Rivers with politics Barr was an a a whose time has come but an idea always on n Cusp of hostility and sell parody this Persona of hers is highlighted by the warm id cuddly image of her sitcom husband actor John adman. Who s having a growing movie career of 8 own and might be a big Factor in the continued Access of the television show meanwhile. Barr s own movie career Gol off to a ugh Start with she Devil it s another mean ii chup. Barr All hat effect and exaggerated Jamess compared to meryl so rep s adroitly frilly duct ass Barr does not have any of the magnificently aggrieved heft of the heroine of Fay Oldon s novel irom which the film is taken As Peler Rainer. A los Angeles times movie critic Illy sums up Barr s debut it was less a performance in an assault upon the audience " that of course. An l her Lault. Rainer said wary of getting in on the Irr bashing. Professional or personal he said he inks a lot of the heat she generates has an anti female age she has the reputation of being very forthright be s unpredictable and tells it like it is Many of the ale stars like Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson we the same thing but it s very hard Lor a woman get away with it Jessica Lange has a reputation i being difficult but she s a i know he s right and that s what troubles me so Jave it another shot i read her Book a rags to Hes Story it s a disjointed sometimes touching Ile of her abusively Loving family ring a Bell 11 troubles in adolescence and stay in a mental a spinal. And her later Rise to glory through the suntry s comedy clubs profane and Spacey she dares you to love her. Res you not to she s telling you like it is out there the real world so there it s a Schick that s a mainly worked Well for her so far but is it going to Wear thin and is she going to go k far. Thereby losing her grip on the heart of the Earl land yesterday s Darling of the real Lolk turned to today s shrew hers is a daring if irritating act id whatever her shortcomings it would be a lame to see Barr written off As just another victim i lame. Byjoe Shetlin los Angeles times Erica Jong stretches out on her big bras bed. Leans Back comfortably on a Mound of plump White pillows and positions herself forthe photographer at her Home in Weston Conn suddenly she Sils up and frowns you know a be i should t be doing this Jong says nervously hulling her mane of thick Blond hair. My literary reputation is in bad enough shape As it is maybe i should t be Arnm. Photographed in bed " the moment of doubt passes Jong settles Back onto the pillows and strokes a pet poodle thai has lumped Onlo her Lap As the camera Clicks away she talks excitedly about a coming trip to Italy to plug her latest novel any woman s blues i m really looking Forward to going there she says in Italy they treat me As a serious writer. Here they treat me like the Happy Hooker " Ever since Jong burst onto the literary scone in 1973 with her Bawdy Best Selling novel fear of flying the outspoken writer says she has been fighting for respectability the Battle rages on. But it has t been All thai painful for the 47 year old Jong a master of sell promotion fear of flying a satiric and sexually Frank Book about a woman s quest for Independence sold 10 million copies and made Jong a Star overnight formerly a poet and essayist Sho suddenly became a household name a hoi topic on talk shows Magazine covers and in gossip columns her Madcap Book which was published in 20 countries reflected the turbulent changes in sexual relationships Between men and women that surfaced in the Early 1970s but critics were divided and the resulting debate set a tone Lor Jong s career that has persisted. While some praised the novel As a chronicle of Evor woman s struggle others said it was cliched oversexed and a disservice to the women s movement today 17 years later fear of flying seems tame even daled. And Jong herself appears to have mellowed the woman who once ironically referred to herself As the Patron Saint of Adulte resses now lives quietly in Connecticut and Manhattan with her fourth husband new York lawyer Ken Burrows. She has one child 11-year-old Mollie from her third marriage. Given a Choice Jong says she would rather go to a movie with her family than attend a celebrity Bash. But if she herself has shed the bad girl image her novels have not Jong has continued to stir up controversy on the literary scene and if the past is any guide any woman s blues will be no different billed As a social history of the 1980s, the novel is a steamy smorgasbord of sexual obsession drug addiction alcoholism and self destruction. Some of the lengthy a rated passages May repel readers especially graphic scenes of sexual bondage and humiliation. But Jong insists she has a duty to be outrageous. Everybody has to claim their territory and i la touch stuff that other people won t touch she says. Ill talk about what Many women writers won t talk about. And since i seem to validate and heal people with my books i feel it s a calling to do in her Book Jong charts the distance that american women have travelled from the 1970s to the present. Although feminists have made great strides toward sexual Freedom the experience has left Many of confused she says these Days women Are entitled to sexual pleasure women Are entitled to be mommies and workers but Are they More liberated i d say in we be Only had a partial As the Book begins Jong informs re Jers novelist Isadora Wing the plucky heroine of fear c flying has disappeared in a plane Over the South Pacific. But she has left behind a telling the Story of Leila Sand a Rich Painter who drifts from Oro sick relationship to another Ard through a series of crippling addictions before achieving inner peace the underlying problem Jonq says is that the 1980s were a time of doubt and insecurity it does t matter if people won Hung up on a person a drug credit cards shopping or chocolate because in the Book it s All the same thing it s a recurring it s also autobiographical. Like her heroine. Jong comes fran a new York jewish family lives in suburban Connecticut and has had several marriages she too a. Had obsessive relationships i ii men who drove her to drink and. Like her character she went o alcoholics Anonymous to get her life Back together like Many writers. Jong says there is a Clear line Between her own voice and those of her characters still she is passionate in discussing the travails of Leila Sand and their reverberations in her own life the key Issue of course is sex Jong insists Hal most american women despite All the feminist rhetoric Are still obsessed Wilh men. Are women better off loday7 no. Is society less sexist7 no is this the Lault of women no women Are still Hung up on men. With love As a Way of having identity that simply has t Haven t Many american women gone beyond thai stage Jong is sceptical 1 of. Sure there Are some she says but i look around Rne. At All the women whom i Admire who Are fabulous women who Are doing Well. And if they re not with a Man they re unhappy society treats them As failures " the author says she Learned this irom her experiences As a single woman. For much of the 80s, she was looking for or. Right but with no Luck the quest left her feeling like a pariah in polite society. There s always when you re a single woman an Edge of fear arid envy about the Way other women treat you. Particularly women who Are married they always act Asil you might possibly steal their husbands and the married men Are always coming on to you " in the Book Leila Sand dwells obsessively on her lovers bragging about their sexual prowess and bewailing their mid lilies. One of them. A surly Young stud lives off her Money and cheats on her like a Bandit. The humiliation is overwhelming but Sand is incapable of freeing herself irom the affair. Jong say., she too has experienced that helpless sinking feeling have i sat by the phone drinking wine because my Man did t come Home absolutely. I be done that to the degree that i could t move. I think there in t a woman with a soul so dead that she would t say yes to since much of the Book mirrors her own life Jong expects critics to Zero in on the More lurid episodes. By now. She says it s All part of the game. A visitor gets the feeling that she in t too terribly concerned and May in fact be laughing All the Way to the Bank. Ruary21,1990 the stars and stripes Page 15
