I don’t often read memoirs, but this one was very compelling. How To Lose Your Mother is a story of one woman’s lifetime living in the shadow of her famous mother. Her famous, narcissistic mother, the writer Erica Jong. This book is in parts funny, and poignant, and terribly terribly heartbreaking. To be the child of someone so bonkers as Erica Jong clearly was, must have been incredibly difficult. To say I enjoyed this book is a little strange to admit, but I really did. And that’s because at its heart there is a thread of humanity and love, and the hope that if we pay attention to our loved ones, sincerely, then things will be alright.

***advance review copy received from NetGalley in return for an honest review***
Sometimes I find memoirs a challenging read, because they meander and there’s no definitive narrative to follow so the topics jump from one thought to another and it’s not always linear or cohesive.
This is not that - whilst it’s brutally open and honest at times, and whilst the author is very different to myself - this is a compelling read made all the more interesting by the mundane way seriously famous names are routinely dropped.
The people in this memoir live an entirely different life in an entirely different way to likely most people reading it; but the onward march towards death and what may come before that is common to us all - which is what makes this an interesting read.

How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast is an absorbing memoir about a very difficult time in her life dealing with elderly ageing parents and a husband with a serious illness as well as grappling with her past.

I read Fear of Flying many decades ago but knew very little about the author, Erica Jong. In this memoir, her daughter Molly writes honestly about her life growing up as an only child of Jong and about her mother’s dementia.
I was completely immersed in How to Lose Your Mother, some parts of it really resonated with me and I loved the style of writing, which flowed effortlessly and felt like Molly was talking directly to me. The author writes movingly and insightfully about the bond between mother and daughter, living with a parent’s alcoholism and what happens when our parents age. It’s an intense, reflective, funny and emotional read that I would recommend.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.