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| Erica Jong at home in the Upper East side, New York. Photograph: Mike McGregor |
Erica Jong: 'There are a million ways of making love…'
Her frank 1973 bestseller Fear of Flying brought fame and notoriety. Now, with her first novel in 10 years, Erica Jong turns the focus on sex and the over-60s
Rachel Cooke
Sunday 25 October 2015
Twenty years ago, Erica Jong fell briefly out of love with her face. “There was a moment during my 50s when I’d look at pictures of myself and I would see my father’s aunts staring back at me,” she says, rearranging for the dozenth time her turquoise scarf, a voluminous item whose artful draping requires more or less constant maintenance. “I couldn’t bear it. Oh, my God, I thought. I can’t do this. But I had a friend who lived in Majorca who’d been to see a particular doctor in San Francisco who did facelifts that didn’t look like facelifts. So I decided to get one too. I was very pleased with the result.” She never lied about what she’d done: she has often written of the experience, and it inspires a vivid set piece in her new book, Fear of Dying. But she never went back for more, either. “No. I feel pretty. No one would say I was 40, but so the fuck what?”
