Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life

By Erica Jong

Book Overview

Erica Jong began this book as a guide for aspiring writers. It was to be a book full of practical advice, inspiring examples, and sage wisdom ("Dare to dream," for instance). But she quickly realized that writing such a book would be dishonest, a way to veil the difficult nature of the writer's life with platitudes and encouragement. A demon out of an Isaac Singer story whispered in Jong's ear: "Tell the truth!" She knew she had no choice but to obey. Seducing the Demonis the sublime and salacious story of one writer's long and successful career as a poet, novelist, and feminist provocateur. Throughout, Jong is refreshingly direct-whether writing sex scenes, evoking the lure of alcohol and grass in the search for ecstasy, or conforming to the rigid narrative of AA. She tells us candidly about how she always lusted after Bill Clinton, and how she discovered the joys of tantric sex. Equally candid about the privileges of fame and the slaps of notoriety, Jong is above all loyal to the importance of telling the truth in an age of lies. Jong tells us she writes "to get my life down on paper so it can never be extinguished," and "to keep from going mad." She speaks of the power of sexual desire to "transmute words into flesh," and reveals how a range of writers, from Kafka and Nabokov to Henry Miller and Pablo Neruda, influenced and guided her. Delivering trenchant observations on great writers, she compares the ethereal Virginia Woolf to the earthy James Joyce: "She is Ariel to James Joyce's Caliban." An uncanny combination of bookish and bawdy, literary and libidinous, Seducing the Demonis an invaluable glimpse into one of the most provocative minds of our time.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585424447
• ISBN13: 9781585424443
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Tarcher
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

What happens to demons deferred?

Seducing the Demon. Unlike the dreams deferred of Langston Hughes, demons rarely dry up or wither away in the sun. The writing life may not be all things imagined, yet thousands of aspiring writers dream of one day getting that call. Ms. Jong's Seducing the Demon lets us in on her bitter but sweet journey. She inspires us to step onward with an understanding that the jog up these pathways are often paved with something other than gold. Yet still she writes.

Fame and Fiction

Forget what you've heard or read. Erica Jong made one mistake in her life. She had cataclysmic success with her first novel and, as happens with the world's response to success (especially with women), received too much attention for what she wrote and never enough credit for how she wrote. And that never changed. This memoir may not answer all the questions, but it is pretty damn fearless and kind. Very simply, if you read FEAR OF FLYING and were influenced rather than titilated by it, you might want to pick this up.

Candid and intimate, just as I'd imagine breakfast with Erica Jong.

Like her writing her life has been enchanted with all the baggage that princesses seem to carry. Filled with insight, love, challenge, and children this written account of a woman who needs to write is a joy to read. Written in the most candid language full of wit and so many truths that are the human experience. This book answered so many questions I had wondered about after reading her books of poetry and the books that chronicled her fictional character Isadora Wing. Who hasn't' read Fear of Flying and wondered if Isadora was the written incarnation of Erica Jong? Just like the other books this book of writing and living encapsulates honesty and discovery of self. She talks of other writers' life force as if she doesn't know that she herself has a life force that is communicated through her writing. This is a wonderful book filled with insight of both a personal nature and her success as a writer. She talks of her marriages, loves, celebrities, writers, and most of all her journey as a writer since the age of 12. She holds honesty as the cornerstone of integrity and through her writing has delivered that integrity to the world. girldiver:)

An excellent book for writers and for Erica Jong enthusiasts

I am a young writer who has listened to many interviews with Erica Jong and yet haven't read her works. I decided I'd start with some backround information with her memoir. This delicate and intimate portrait of a writer of poetry and novels, is a brilliant book, and if she has this in all of her books, I can't wait to start reading it. I read her book in under a week time, with a hell bent schedule. A simple and good read. Great book for everyone.

Erica Jong is a great writer

About ten years or so ago I discovered FEAR OF FLYING by Erica Jong, and loved it. Since then I've read nearly every books she has written -- and I've enjoyed nearly all of them (with a couple exceptions). This new one, however, might be Jong's best book in years, certainly her bravest. In SEDUCING THE DEMON she writes about her own process of writing, what it was like to become famous for a novel, and about her own musings on other great writers. Along the way she talks about her mistakes, her achievements, and many of the interesting people she's met along the way. Overall, it is a fun, insightful read, and I enjoyed it immensely. Recommended for those who have loved some of Jong's earlier books, and/or for those who are interested in how one writer has wrestled with the muse, and is still writing at the top of her ability.