Molly Jong-Fast

{{Infobox person

| name = Molly Jong-Fast

| image = Molly Jong Fast Open Congress Austin 2023.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| caption = Jong-Fast in 2023

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1978|8|19}}

| birth_place = Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.

| birth_name =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| education = Barnard College (BA)
Bennington College (MFA)

| occupation = Writer, editor

| children = 3

| spouse = {{marriage|Matthew Greenfield|2003}}

| parents = Erica Jong
Jonathan Fast

| relatives = Howard Fast (grandfather)
Peter Daou (cousin)

}}

Molly Jong-Fast (born August 19, 1978){{cite book |editor1-last=Templin |editor1-first=Charlotte |title=Conversations with Erica Jong |date=2002 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-57806-510-3 |page=xxi}} is an American writer, journalist, author, political commentator, and podcaster.

Early life

Jong-Fast was born on August 19, 1978 in Stamford, Connecticut,{{Cite news |last=Jong-Fast |first=Molly |date=2025-06-08 |title=My mother was a famous feminist writer known for her candour and wit. But she was also a fantasist who couldn't be bothered to spend time raising me |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/08/erica-jong-child-molly-jong-fast-growing-up |access-date=2025-06-14 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} to novelist Erica Jong{{cite web |author=Pressler, Jessica |date=June 3, 2011 |title=Fear of Talking About Sex |url=https://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/molly-jong-fast-2011-6/ |url-access=limited |access-date=June 3, 2011 |website=New York Magazine |department=Intelligencer}} and author Jonathan Fast, and the granddaughter of writer Howard Fast.{{Cite web |title=Molly Jong-Fast's Least Favorite Things |url=https://airmail.news/issues/2025-6-7/molly-jong-fast |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=airmail.news |language=en}} She was raised in a Jewish family, though she has mentioned that her nanny "raised [her] Catholic," despite not partaking in the sacraments.{{cite book |last1=Jong-Fast |first1=Molly |title=The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt |date=2006 |publisher=Plume |isbn=978-0-452-28748-8 |editor1-last=Ellenson |editor1-first=Ruth Andrew |location=New York |page=19 |chapter=Tell Me About Your Mother |quote=I guess I should give you a little family history. We are Jews. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/modernjewishgirl00ruth/page/19/mode/1up?view=theater |chapter-url-access=registration}} Her parents divorced during her childhood, and she was raised as an only child.{{Cite web |author= |date=March 6, 2019 |title=Why Molly Jong-Fast wrote about the sex life of her famous mother, Erica Jong |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-march-6-2019-1.5043611/why-molly-jong-fast-wrote-about-the-sex-life-of-her-famous-mother-erica-jong-1.5043612 |access-date=April 12, 2022 |website=CBC Radio |department=The Current}} Jong-Fast struggled with substance abuse as a teenager, becoming alcoholic and addicted to cocaine. After going to rehab at age 19, she has remained sober for 27 years as of May 2025.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/style/molly-jong-fast-memoir-erica-jong.html |title=The Devastating Book Erica Jong Always Knew Her Daughter Would Write |last=Alter |first=Alexandra |date=May 31, 2025 |work=The New York Times |quote=Now 46 years old and 27 years sober, Ms. Jong-Fast has escaped from her mother's long shadow and become a quasi-celebrity in her own right. As a teenager, Ms. Jong-Fast started drinking heavily and did "mountains of cocaine." When she was 19, she told her mother she needed to go to rehab. In her memoir, she describes how Ms. Jong at first said she was being melodramatic before agreeing she needed help. Shortly after, mother and daughter flew to Minnesota, where Ms. Jong-Fast spent a month at a rehab facility. |access-date=June 5, 2025 |url-access=limited}}

Jong-Fast graduated from the Riverdale Country School and attended Barnard College before earning a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bennington College in 2004.{{cite news |last1=Roug |first1=Louise |date=September 10, 2001 |title=She's Her Mother's Daughter, but Her Life's Plot Is All Her Own |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-10-cl-44054-story.html |url-access=limited |access-date=June 19, 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times}}

Career

Jong-Fast is the author of two novels, Normal Girl{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/07/16/reviews/000716.16rosenft.html |author=Rosenfeld, Lucinda |date=July 16, 2000 |title=Sex, Drugs, Etc. |department=Books |website=The New York Times |url-access=limited}} and The Social Climber's Handbook,{{cite web |last1=Webster |first1=Camilla |title=The Social Climber's Handbook: The Murderous State of Womanhood |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/05/06/the-social-climbers-handbook-the-murderous-state-of-womanhood-2/ |work=Forbes |access-date=February 22, 2017 |date=May 6, 2011}} and three memoirs, Girl [Maladjusted], The Sex Doctors in the Basement,{{cite web |title=Nonfiction Book Review: The Sex Doctors in the Basement: True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood by Molly Jong-Fast |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4000-6144-0 |website=Publishers Weekly |access-date=May 2, 2022 |date=April 1, 2005}}{{cite web |title=The Sex Doctors in the Basement |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/molly-jong-fast/the-sex-doctors-in-the-basement/ |website=Kirkus Reviews |access-date=May 2, 2022 |date=January 1, 2005}} and How to Lose Your Mother.{{Cite web |date=2025-06-11 |title='Life, amidst death, has to continue': Molly Jong-Fast on her new book and watching her mother fade away |url=https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20250610-molly-jong-fast-katty-kay-interview-grief-dementia |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}

After the 2016 election, Jong-Fast began focusing her writing on politics.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/business/media/molly-jong-fast-politics-twitter.html |title=How Molly Jong-Fast Tweeted Her Way to Liberal Media Stardom |work=The New York Times |date=November 6, 2022 |last1=Grynbaum |first1=Michael M. |url-access=limited}} She became a regular contributor to The Forward,{{cite web |title=Molly Jong-Fast |url=https://forward.com/authors/molly-jong-fast/ |website=The Forward |access-date=6 June 2025 |language=en}} The Bulwark,{{cite web |url=https://thebulwark.com/author/molly-jong-fast/ |website=The Bulwark |title=Articles by Molly Jong-Fast |access-date=January 19, 2020}} Playboy,{{cite web |url=https://www.playboy.com/profile/molly-jong-fast |website=Playboy |title=Molly Jong-Fast: Playboy Contributing Editor |access-date=January 19, 2020}} Glamour,{{cite web |url=https://www.glamour.com/contributor/molly-jong-fast |website=Glamour |title=Molly Jong-Fast |access-date=January 14, 2020}} and Vogue.{{Cite web |title=Molly Jong-Fast |url=https://www.vogue.com/contributor/molly-jong-fast |access-date=April 10, 2022 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}

In December 2019, Jong-Fast became an editor-at-large at The Daily Beast, hosting the podcast The New Abnormal.{{Cite news |author= |date=December 26, 2021 |title='The New Abnormal' Hosts Molly Jong-Fast & Andy Levy Ask and Answer 20 Stupid Questions |language=en |work=The Daily Beast |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-new-abnormal-hosts-molly-jong-fast-and-andy-levy-ask-and-answer-20-stupid-questions |access-date=April 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription}} In November 2021, she became a contributing writer at The Atlantic,{{cite web |title=Molly Jong-Fast |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/author/molly-jong-fast/ |website=The Atlantic |date=October 21, 2022 |access-date=6 June 2025 |language=en}} and the writer of its Wait, What? newsletter.{{Cite web |title=Wait, What? |url=https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/ |access-date=6 June 2025 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} In 2022, she joined Vanity Fair as a special correspondent and began hosting the Fast Politics iHeart Media podcast. In January 2024, she joined MSNBC as a political analyst.{{cite web |url=https://www.msnbc.com/author/molly-jong-fast-ncpn1031186 |title=MSNBC Author Molly Jong-Fast |publisher=MSNBC}}

Critical acclaim

In 2025, Viking Books published Jong-Fast's third memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, about the writer's relationship with her mother, Erica Jong, and the latter's struggles with dementia.

How to Lose Your Mother became a New York Times Bestseller within three weeks,{{Cite web |title=Molly Jong-Fast's "How to Lose Your Mother" Lands on NYT Bestseller List |url=https://www.apbspeakers.com/blog/posts/2025/june/molly-jong-fast-s-how-to-lose-your-mother-lands-on-nyt-bestseller-list/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=APB Speakers |language=en}} with The New York Times describing the memoir as a "score-settling marathon at times, but also like a loving elegy."{{Cite news |last=Alter |first=Alexandra |date=2025-05-31 |title=The Devastating Book Erica Jong Always Knew Her Daughter Would Write |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/style/molly-jong-fast-memoir-erica-jong.html |access-date=2025-06-20 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The Washington Post praised How to Lose Your Mother as a "transformative work of alchemy" with "lines so good you won't just want to underline them, you will want to cut them out to share."{{Cite news |last1=McPhee |first1=Martha |last2=Meyer |first2=Theodoric |last3=Bogage |first3=Jacob |last4=Leonnig |first4=Carol |last5=Allison |first5=Natalie |last6=LeVine |first6=Marianne |last7=Gurley |first7=Lauren Kaori |last8=Nelson |first8=Dustin |last9=Gowen |first9=Annie |date=2025-05-28 |title=Review {{!}} Molly Jong-Fast's memoir about her famous mom is sad, dishy and relatable |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/05/28/erica-jong-molly-fast-how-lose-mother-memoir-review/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |newspaper=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}} Oprah Magazine called How to Lose Your Mother "hilarious and heartbreaking" and "the story of a singular mother-daughter relationship that will resonate with anyone who grew up playing second fiddle to a parent’s passions."{{Cite web |date=2025-04-28 |title=Feeling Alone This Mother's Day? These 15 Books Can Help |url=https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/g64567490/complex-motherhood-books/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Oprah Daily |language=en-US}}

Personal life

In 2003, Jong-Fast married CUNY professor Matthew Adlai Greenfield.{{cite web |title=Countdown to Bliss: Matthew Greenfield and Molly Jong-Fast |author=Grossman, Anna Jane |date=March 3, 2003 |website=Observer |publication-place=New York |url=https://observer.com/2003/03/countdown-to-bliss-152/ |access-date=March 3, 2003}}{{cite news |title=Weddings/Celebrations; Molly Jong-Fast, Matthew Greenfield |date=November 2, 2003 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/style/weddings-celebrations-molly-jong-fast-matthew-greenfield.html |access-date=November 2, 2003 |url-access=limited}} {{cite web |last1=Jong-Fast |first1=Molly |title=Molly Jong-Fast on Human Frailty and Unlearning Erica Jong's Lessons |url=https://lithub.com/molly-jong-fast-on-human-frailty-and-unlearning-erica-jongs-lessons/ |website=Lit Hub |date=June 3, 2025 |access-date=7 June 2025}} They have three children.{{cite magazine |last=Richardson |first=Davis |date=June 6, 2019 |title=Molly Jong-Fast Throws the Perfect Dinner Party for Political Operatives, Pundits, and Upper East Side Princesses |magazine=Interview |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/uncategorized/molly-jong-fast-throws-the-perfect-dinner-party-for-political-operatives-pundits-and-upper-east-side-princesses |access-date=June 6, 2019}}

Jong-Fast is a cousin of Lebanese-American political strategist Peter Daou{{cite magazine |last1=Klion |first1=David |title=What Happened to Peter Daou? |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/155866/happened-peter-daou |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=June 19, 2023 |date=December 3, 2019}} and has written about her experience with Alcoholics Anonymous.{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/how-aa-prepared-me-indefinite-lockdown/615667/ |title=I Won't Drink Today, and I Won't Get the Virus Today |first=Molly |last=Jong-Fast |date=August 26, 2020 |website=The Atlantic |access-date=6 June 2025 |url-access=limited}}

Publications

Normal Girl (2000). {{ISBN|0-37-575759-7}}
The Sex Doctors in the Basement: True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood (2005). {{ISBN|1-40-006144-X}}.
Girl [Maladjusted]: True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood (2006). {{ISBN|0-81-297074-8}}
The Social Climber's Handbook: A novel (2011). {{ISBN|0-34-550189-6}}
How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir (2025). {{ISBN|0-59-365647-4}}