How to Lose Your Mother

A Daughter's Memoir

By: Molly Jong-Fast

Narrated by: Molly Jong-Fast

“Beautiful and painful at the same time, just like real life.” —Anne Lamott

From the political writer and podcaster, a ferociously honest and disarmingly funny memoir about her elusive mother’s encroaching dementia and a reckoning with her complicated childhood

Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of a famous woman, writer Erica Jong, whose sensational book Fear of Flying launched her into second-wave feminist stardom. She grew up yearning for a connection with her dreamy, glamorous, just out of reach mother, who always seemed to be heading somewhere that wasn’t with Molly. When, in 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia just as Molly’s husband discovered he had a rare cancer, Jong-Fast was catapulted into a transformative year.

How to Lose Your Mother is a compulsively bingeable memoir about an intense mother–daughter relationship, a sometimes chaotic upbringing with a fame-hungry parent, and the upheavals that challenge our hard-won adulthood. A pitch-perfect balance of acceptance and rage, humor and heart, How to Lose Your Mother tells a universal story of loss alongside a singular story of a literary life. This is a memoir that will stand alongside the classics of the genre.

©2025 Molly Jong-Fast (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A gripping memoir about mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, loss and healing, and what it means to finally accept your past and become an adult. Despite being raised in the shadow of fame, Molly tells a story that is both uniquely specific and utterly, exquisitely relatable.” —Lori Gottlieb

“Molly Jong-Fast conveys the mess, terror, loneliness and glory of familial love, in all its riveting complexity.” —Claire Messud

“I was just bowled over by this book.” —Nigella Lawson

Terrific

Very funny and very sad. A meaningful story. Truly worth the listen. Very well done.

Devastatingly brilliant

A shattering, searing, resonant and powerful memoir. Breaks my heart - so relatable and authentic. Beautifully written with love and tremendous pain.

Heroic

Anyone with a bad childhood will instantly relate to the conflicting emotions expressed by the author.

Outstanding in content and narration!

The raw and beautiful and heartbreaking sharing of a year in the life of Molly Jong Fast. I am moved beyond words in this telling. To be so honest and so generous in the sharing of this time in her life is something that will stay with me always. I thank her for it.

The whole story and Molly as the narrator.

Beautiful and deep. Very relatable and painful. Childhood memories that are too vivid and too insightful.

Raw & Real

I was captivated by this memoir. I read Erica Jong in the 70's and now know what a trial it was to be her daughter. The deeply reflective book is filled with angst, regret & complicated emotions. It's a deep reconnecting - and the author narrates it in a voice like no other.

we have a lot in common.

I liked it all. So relatable. Turner. good writer. So authentic. It was a page turner.

Raw, honest, moving

At times a difficult listen. Molly tells the story of the relationship with her mother and her struggles with her own mortality in a straightforward and brutally honest manner. If you aren’t familiar with her voice you may be put off by the tone and tenor. But this is part of who Molly is and for me contribute to the raw honesty of her story.

Molly is incredible.

Molly bares her soul with bravery and bite. Longing for a normal mother, she got a wildly abnormal life instead — and turned it into something unforgettable. A must-listen for anyone trying to make sense of it all.

Beautifully observed self reflections

This may be my new favorite book-heart rending and smart observation and reflection of herself and her mother (whose momentous fear of flying I read at 22 when it was published in 77) and profound musings on life and death - I loved this book and I love the way Molly reads it to us with all the heart and soul that went into living and writing it - don’t miss listening to this one!