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Molly Jong-Fast
American author and pundit (born 1978) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Molly Jong-Fast (born August 19, 1978[1]) is an American journalist, novelist, and political commentator.[2]
 | This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. (May 2022) |
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Early life
Jong-Fast was born on August 19, 1978[1] in Stamford, Connecticut,[3] to novelist Erica Jong and author Jonathan Fast.[4][5] She is the granddaughter of writer Howard Fast.[4] Her parents divorced during her childhood, and she was raised an only child[6] in Manhattan.[7] by a nanny whom Jong-Fast says essentially raised her as Catholic.[8] Her family is Jewish.[9]
Jong-Fast struggled with substance abuse as a teenager, spending a month in a drug rehabilitation facility at age 19.[10] She graduated from the Riverdale Country School and later attended Wesleyan University, Barnard College, and New York University, but did not graduate.[11] She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bennington College in 2004.[4]
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Career
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Jong-Fast is the author of two novels, Normal Girl[12] and The Social Climber's Handbook, and three memoirs, Girl [Maladjusted], The Sex Doctors in the Basement,[13][14] and How to Lose Your Mother.[15]
After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Jong-Fast began focusing her writing on politics,[16] becoming a prominent left-wing political commentator during the first presidency of Donald Trump.[10] She became a regular contributor to The Forward,[17] The Bulwark,[18] Playboy,[19] Glamour,[20] and Vogue.[21]
In December 2019, Jong-Fast became an editor-at-large at The Daily Beast, hosting the podcast The New Abnormal.[22] In November 2021, she became a contributing writer at The Atlantic,[23] and the writer of its Wait, What? newsletter.[24] 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.[25]
In 2025, Viking Books published Jong-Fast's third memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, which became a New York Times Bestseller within three weeks.[26] A reviewer for The New York Times describes the book as "read[ing] like a score-settling marathon at times, but also like a loving elegy".[10] Novelist Martha McPhee wrote for The Washington Post that How to Lose Your Mother was 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".[2] 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."[27]
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Personal life
In 2003, Jong-Fast married CUNY professor Matthew Adlai Greenfield.[28][29][30] They have three children.[31] She has written about her experience with Alcoholics Anonymous.[32]
Jong-Fast is a cousin of Lebanese-American political strategist Peter Daou.[33] As of 2007[update], she lives on the Upper East Side of New York City with her family.[7]
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
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References
Further reading
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