Erica Jong and Francesca Lia Block

So, we were reading Erica Jong's Fear of Flying for class this week. And coincidentally, I picked up a book at the library (I always have to have something I'm reading just for me) called Quakeland, by Francesca Lia Block. Both books are about women trying to navigate the perils of romantic relationships in the feminist world. Both are about women trying to figure out just who they are. I must admit, I preferred Quakeland. It had a spirituality to it that was lacking in Fear of Flying. But both books were certainly realistic, just from points of view of different types of women with similar problems. Much of the difference comes from the different eras - Jong wrote in the early '70s; Block's book came out this year. Yet both books touched me deeply. I am, after all, a woman in the feminist world. I was raised during those first couple of decades of feminism. Intellectually, I understand that my life is my own intellectually. But my role models hadn't quite internalized those changes that feminism brought about. Block's Katrina, Jong's Isadora, and I are still trying to make independence and self-reliance work, to find out what a healthy relationship means to feminists like ourselves. I hope I figure it out soon.