Sunday Morning! “Modern Love” by Constance DeJong

Rufus F.

Rufus is a likeable curmudgeon. He has a PhD in History, sang for a decade in a punk band, and recently moved to NYC after nearly two decades in Canada. He wrote the book "The Paris Bureau" from Dio Press (2021).

Related Post Roulette

11 Responses

  1. J_A says:

    I am going to say this in the most gently and respectful way I can (alas, the curse of writing instead of talking).

    I had never heard before of Ms. DeJong, but this summary and description screams Erica Jong’s (OMG, I just realized they even share that) Fear of Flying. A contemporary novel that sort of makes similar points (or so it seems from your summary), but one that probably hasn’t aged wellReport

    • J_A in reply to J_A says:

      My comment posted before I finished editing it., so here goes the rest.

      Why would Fear of Flying be thought of more as a joke than a jewel? I hit my teens in the late 70s, and it seemed, to me, at least, a great time to be alive. Change for the better was in the air (*). An age of great movies, of changing TV, of interesting, challenging books, The ideas that had started to emerge in the 60s were solidifying: equality, freedom, civil rights, environmentalism, you name it.

      And then the 80s happened. A counterrevolution of sorts. A revolution of greed, of selfishness. Of FYIGM.

      And then the 90s happened, a correction of the 80s great counterrevolutionary excesses. But a correction of excesses only. The dawn of the 70s has not yet turned into a bright new day.

      That, or I am just an old geezer yelling at clouds. YMMV.

      (*) Gentle reminder that I didn’t grow up in USA, From my (dis)advantaged POV, Carter was a great President facing a challenging situation that no one could have avoidedReport

    • Rufus F. in reply to J_A says:

      I hear what you’re saying about Erica Jong, but I’m not sure the issue is that DeJong’s book is making those points, or if it’s just a failing of my summary. Much of the book is very rich fantasies about other times and places- the social comments are more like witty observations than hardcore social analysis. What I mean is Erica Jong seemed to me to be writing about How We Live Today, while Constance DeJong seems more like she was having fun with coming up with weird and wild scenarios. At any rate, I can’t imagine Erica Jong writing an extended sci-fi riff based on 50s comic books in the middle!Report

  2. Jaybird says:

    I spent a good 5 minutes writing a post in my head about “Fear of Flying” before I realized that Constance DeJong and Erica Jong are two different people.

    The common dream seems to be something like “feeling alive”.Report

  3. Saul Degraw says:

    I’m 3 1/4 episodes into the Apple TV series For All Mankind. It is an alt-history TV series where the Soviets beat the Americans to the moon landing by a matter of weeks and in secret. They also land the first woman on the moon before the Americans. Basically, the Space Race never ends. I find the concept intriguing but am not sure how I feel about the show overall.Report

    • Slade the Leveller in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      I just caught up (S3E4), apparently. It’s quite a well written and produced show, IMHO. It’s a little soapy at times, but then, so was The Right Stuff.Report

    • Rufus F. in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      We watched the finish of Stranger Things 4 like a lot of people and I was struck once again that I am not good at all with extended series. I lose interest, forget who people are, have no idea what’s going on by three episodes in. It’s awkward because everyone I know can keep up with these things except me.Report

  4. LeeEsq says:

    I’m reading one of the early novels by the Brazilian author Jorge Amando, This Violent Land. It is about rival families trying to control the cacao industry in Brazil. All very soap opera like stuff and pretty different from Jorge Armando’s latter works like Gabriella, Clove and Cinnamon and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.

    Jorge Amando was one of those authors that was very big in the mid to late 20th century but basically fell into obscurity in the present. In some ways he suffers from the same problems that Philip Roth or Saul Bellow does in that he celebrates a very aggressive male heterosexuality that just seems at best déclassé in the present if not actually reprehensible. The reason he doesn’t get as much ire as Philip Roth is because he is basically unknown for most people outside of Brazil these days.Report

    • Rufus F. in reply to LeeEsq says:

      Thanks for mentioning this- I was in a used book store in Brooklyn that’s run by book lovers and writers and they had a shelf full of his books and I wondered who he was. Once I get enough work to buy books, I’ll try one and see what I think.Report