Pre-Read

I really enjoyed the last fare I took in from Nora Ephron, so I'm pretty excited about this read. And I'm exactly the audience she was aiming for here, so I expect to love it. Ephron's novel Heartburn is fantastically funny– wicked and witty! Read my review of Heartburn here.

I'll update this space as I read.

Final Review

At Lee Bailey's, you could eat forever. (0:43:59)

I read this author's novel entitled Heartburn and loved it. But I didn't enjoy the author's narrative voice in many of the essays in this collection. I found Ephron to be overly negative, and I have a high threshold for these things.

I don't think these essays are bad, but I definitely prefer this writer's fiction. I recommend this collection to readers who enjoy sarcasm, slice of life, personal essays or narrative nonfiction, and fans of Nora Ephron.

Just for the record– happiness is not bullshit. (6:08:15)

n  Two things I loved:n

1. A neck is a dead giveaway. Our faces are lies and our necks are the truth. You have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you would never have to, if it had a neck. (0:03:57) Nora is a very witty writer and I can tell this will be a funny book. I mean, this is less than four minutes in!

2. We're lost. We hate being lost. I hate being lost, he hates being lost, and our marriage hates being lost. (1:25:58) So much of the material in this book is relatable and accessible. *edit Some of it's not, though.

n  Two things I didn't love:n

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. "My friend Rosie O'Donnell took the top floor..." In this book, in which Ephron portrays herself as having "normal people problems" like ungrateful kids and the fear of aging, I find it a little icky that she would also name drop.

2. I think I prefer Ephron's fiction to her essays.

Rating:

3.5

this was both a fun read & gave some interesting insights, but i think maybe more of it would have resonated with me if i was older and/or had been born earlier.

A couple of weeks ago I read Heartburn from Nora Ephron and completely fell in love with her writing.
Of course, I know her talent from the films we love like When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, etc.
But still, I was surprised about how good it was. So, I immediately picked up this book.
Although I didn't enjoy is quite as much as Heartburn, I still enjoyed it a lot. It was humorous, heartfelt, honest, sharp. The thing that I love most about it is I feel as if Nora wa sin front of me, telling me all these stories. I wish she was :)
I loved the parts about womanhood, our purses that are actually black holes. How much time it takes to do physical maintenance for a woman, etc.
My favourite part was at the end, about the books she loved. She talked about them with so much passion and reading in general. I definitely need to read Woman in White by Wilkie Collins now :)

It's a shame she doesn't have more books. I'd highly recommend any of her writing.

می دانم خانم هایی هستند که ناخن هایشان را مرتب مانیکور میکنند اما به نظر من آن ها زن های بیکاری هستندکه کار دیگری ندارند.یا شاید دچار این توهم باطل هستند که ناخن رنگ شده خیلی خوشگل و با شکوه است.این بانوان به طور حتم خانم هایی نیستند که خرجشان را با یک ماشین تحریر در می آورند.ماشین هایی که دشمن قسم خورده ی ناخن های بلند هستند.
و بعد یک روز، یکهو در منهتن عین قارچ یک میلیارد سالن ترمیم ناخن سبز شد...طولی نکشید که همه ی خانم ها ناخن هایشان را مانیکور می کردند.اگر کسی ناخن هایش را مانیکور نمی‌کرد، دیگران احساس می کردنداو ظاهر شلخته ای دارد.ادم خجالت می کشید مانیکور نکند...و صد افسوس که همین موضوع من را به پدیکور کشاند...
#من_از_گردنم_بدم_میاد
#نورا_افرون
#ترجمه #کیهان_بهمنی

I've read about half of this mercifully short collection and I just can't read any more of it. It reads like a compilation of blog posts, or newspaper columns (though I can't imagine that a serious NYC newspaper would publish them in those days). At first I thought the author was being ironic, making fun of herself and the obsession to be "in". It just kept coming, and I started to think, "Are you really this shallow?" Apparently so, given that she married three times and couldn't seem to understand why. Perhaps she treated her husbands as so many fads.

Ephron wrote the screenplays to a couple of my favourite movies; perhaps superficial examinations of shallow social morés over time is all she's got. But, being neither rich, obsessed with my appearance, nor a New Yorker, I'm going to pass on finishing this one.

“Lloro desconsoladamente, pero pienso que algún día esto será una historia divertida”

A Nora Ephron no le gusta su cuello. A mí no me gusta su libro. Empate.
Recopilación de artículos que ni me han interesado (las tribulaciones de las pijas ricas neoyorquinas no me atraen lo más mínimo), ni me han parecido graciosos ni especialmente bien escritos.
Totalmente prescindible.

Sometimes it takes a friend to get you to read a book. I Feel Bad About My Neck has been on my physical bookshelves for years. I’d look at it and look at my neck and think, “Do you really want to read this book?” I’ve got six friends on GR with the beautiful name of Julie but it was the clever one that wanted to be certain to stand out, the Julie preceded by a flower, that finally gave me the push to read this book. Thank you.

Heartburn, published in 1983 was my first encounter with Nora Ephron. I remember this as a funny, romantic read. Though humor is subjective Ephron’s sense of mirth is fine with me. Never having read any of her other books I certainly am familiar with her films, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle,, and You’ve Got Mail. There are many others.

Though I don’t feel bad about my neck anymore many other things have taken its place. Who knew I should worry about the purse I carry, varicose veins, coloring my hair, manicures, pedicures, the food I serve, my skin, and the dreaded post-menopausal hair, especially the bounty of this growing above my lips.

This was the perfect book for a dreary, rainy day. I Feel Bad About My Neck lightened my mood and reminded me how great it is to be a woman, turtleneck and all.

A special voice is gone as Nora Ephron passed away in 2012 but her talent lives on. Treat yourself to one of her books or a movie for which she was the screenwriter, producer or director. Have a good laugh in honor of one classy woman.

I was surprised by how much I disliked this book. I expected a relate-able and mildly amusing read on aging. What I got was like the boring and vain ramblings of a coworker who fancies themselves a witty raconteur but really just pulls out tired cliches and the equivalent of dad jokes about getting old as a women (yep, we've all stubbed a freshly pedicured big toe and ruined it...you're not bringing up clever and funny new info).

Ephron's take on aging depresses the hell out of me. I mean, I hate what aging does to my neck, too. But, I don't lump everyone together in each generation and assume they have the same knowledge, approach to life, interests and abilities. Sucks for you Nora that you can't figure out your car radio or bike. Is it because your old or just haven't bothered figuring them out? Because I'm aging, too, but can still get a handle on those things.

So much of it is so very trivial...ah the depression of no longer to be able to wear a bikini, she laments. Ugh. (if it's that important, just where one despite the judgmental stares. Isn't part of getting older about having the balls to do what you want with regard for what others might think?)

I only made it through because 1. it's a short book. 2. it was literally the only thing I had while i was stuck waiting for something for a long time. 3. I read a review that said the essays towards the end were better (meh).

In short this is one point of view from one old person, but doesn't define female aging. I am a woman who is getting older. I'm happy. The author sounds depressed and whiny. Personally, I prefer to age more gracefully and appreciatively than that.

I don't feel bad about my neck. I might someday be a woman in turtlenecks and scarves, but I kind of doubt it. I've never been divorced, let alone remarried, never lived in New York, I hate cooking, and am fairly indifferent about what I eat. So, pretty much nothing in common with Nora Ephron. She was funny and encouraging and not only will she me missed by her family and loved ones, she will also be missed by untold numbers of fans of her sundry work.


Library copy

At first I thought: This is just not something that I can ever in any way understand or comiserate with. Nora Ephron is filthy rich, twice (thrice?) divorced, extreamly successful in her career, living in Manhattan, and 64 years old. She begins with a long discourse on the pain-in-the-neck-ness of having to dye her hair to illiminate gray (I am at least 10% gray and not in the least bit upset or willing to do a thing about it), the ins and outs of purchasing expensive handbags (never, ever crossed my mind), getting weekly manicures (the last manicure I got was paid for by my mother on the morning of my wedding), and the like. But after these things, Ms. Ephron started talking about her life in NY, her love of experimental cooking, her divorces, her time as an intern at the White House, "parenting", vanishing food, her friend Judy. She got me. She was witty and charming, and her humor was nice and dry, just the way I like it. I give it four big stars, and I think my mother, who reads nothing, should read it, but she probably won't. This will not stop me from pestering her about it through e-mail, however.

I spend a lot of time on my #walkntalkwednesdays bemoaning the fact that I can’t seem to find more humorists who deliver the quality of essays as My Darling David. And then the library recommendation feature finally conjured this one up for me . . .

n  n

Due to the combination of the weather breaking, my reluctance to stop listening to this one and it being so short, I ended up starting and finishing it on one monstrous trudge. Ephron was the driving force behind no romance ever being as satisfying in real life as her movie versions were during my coming-of-age and now that I’m in the hellscape which is perimenopause she was here to guide me once again while I “come of age” . . . old age, that is LOL.

Coincidentally, I ended up following this one up with Sandwich - a book also about menopause that even gave a shout out to Ephron’s “Neck.” Highly recommended both! I will 100% be checking out Nora Ephron’s other non-fiction books and plan on giving Heartburn a re-watch as soon as I can find where it is streaming.