How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir

Journalist Jong-Fast (The Social Climber’s Handbook) chronicles the worst year of her life in this staggering self-portrait. In 2023, Jong-Fast’s mother, Erica Jong, celebrated the 50th anniversary of her groundbreaking novel, Fear of Flying. It was also the year Jong was diagnosed with dementia. As Jong-Fast prepared to care for her mother, more blows came: her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and her stepfather’s Parkinson’s began to worsen. Jong-Fast’s life became a flurry of doctors, lawyers, and accountants, as she was forced to place her mother and stepfather in assisted living and clear out the apartment the couple shared. Looking back over her and Jong’s relationship, Jong-Fast eloquently captures the loneliness she felt as “the only child of a once-famous mother” who was often inaccessible, leaving her daughter in the care of other women and dumping her lovers “the instant [they] got sick or... boring.” Conversely, she recalls Jong’s intoxicating glamor, which led Jong-Fast to “adore [her] more than a daughter has ever loved a mother.” Resisting tidy sentiment or easy answers, Jong-Fast dives headfirst into the often-difficult ambiguities of parent-child bonds. The results are stunning. Agent: Pilar Queen, UTA. (June)