Your mother is erica jong,
a novelist best known for the
racy 1973 feminist fantasy
manifesto Fear of Flying.
Your father is Jonathan Fast, a former
science-fiction author (The Beast, Mat'
tal Gods), now a social worker. Your
grandfather is Howard Fast, the best
selling author of Spartacus. What’s a
21-year-old writer to do under the
weight of her literary legacy? If you’re
Molly Jong-Fast, you cart it around
lightly on your privileged shoulders.
“Even if my book’s a total failure, it
[gets] completely trashed, and every
one hates it,” she says breathlessly, “at
least I raised a tiny bit of consciousness
about drugs.” A pretty healthy outlook
for someone who started writing her
first novel, Normal Girl, at age 19. A
sardonic, name-dropping romp through
the Prada-and-Blahniked Manhattan
Jon\3&
The Restless
With her dru^y debut novel, MOLLY JONG-FAST
enters the family business. BY CLARISSA CRUZ
that “feels” autobiographical—but isn’t.
Even so, with lines like the one
comparing children of glitterati to
communism (“better in concept than
in practice”), she’s bound to invite spec
ulation that she has serious mommy is
sues—not to mention rile up naysayers
who sniff that the young scribe nabbed
a book deal with Villard on the
strength of her pedigree. “The name
really just opens the door,” Erica Jong,
58, says proudly. “But it doesn’t make
anyone publish the book.”
“There are people who are not go
trustalarian scene, the book
(due from Villard in June)
chronicles a world where co
caine flows as freely as Cristal
> and aging socialites die tragi
° cally from high-voltage facials.
a The breezy tale stars Miranda,
l a drugged-out Upper East
Side redhead who gets sent to
\ rehab by her prominent mom.
< “I loved playing with the
5 cliche of children of famous
i people,” says Jong-Fast, an
3 Upper East Side redhead
1 (middle name: Miranda), over
bagels and french fries at a
; Manhattan deli. “And I loved
| that people would wonder if
* I did drugs.” For the record,
| while the former NYU stu
I dent says she interviewed
I addicts and “hung out in a lot
| of scummy places” to bring
l authenticity to the drug
< scenes, she categorizes Nor
1 mal Girl as a social satire
CHALK ON THE WILD SIDE Jon^-Fast erases doubt
ing to be huge fans, and that’s
okay,” Jong-Fast sighs. “If
you write a book for the liter
ary world, you’re writing it
for 15 people. I just hope
others can relate to it.”
Jong-Fast—who doesn’t
read her mother’s books—
says she wants to hone a liter
ary voice that has “nothing to
do with my parents.” She is
now at work on her second
novel, about a young woman
searching for love in New
York City. “There are so many
books about women who want
to be in relationships, but
women who say there are no
men in Manhattan—that’s
total bulls—,” declares the
single and actively dating
writer. “I say they don’t want
to meet men. That’s why
they’re not finding any.”
Maybe she’s her mother’s
daughter after all.
• • •