Nora Ephron’s new collection of stories is an exhilarating peek into a talented and zany writer’s mind, purse and family life.
Readers who recognize Ephron as a the creator of Hollywood stories like “When Harry Met Sally” and “You’ve Got Mail,” among other works, may hear echoes of favorite characters in “I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman,” a compilation of essays that read like vignettes.
Themes stretch from self-discovery and parenting to the aging process as Ephron chronicles many issues that irk or enthrall her. Because of her open, honest and conversational tone, the collection could easily be mistaken for diary excerpts or letters to one of her many sisters. It’s a reality fix for literary types.
A successful writer who has published work in the fiction, essay and screenplay genres, Ephron shares stories about her past, which inevitably strike chords with readers, as well as her present life. We learn that she has been married three times, worked as an intern in the JFK White House, has two children and loves Dr. Hauschka lemon-scented bath oil so much that she uses three times the suggested amount.
It may be the precarious balance she strikes between excess and minimalism that sets Ephron apart and creates a certain personal mystique that propels readers to learn more about her. For example, she prefers not to do her own hair and won’t travel to Africa because there are no hairstylists in “the Bush,” yet Ephron opts for plastic purses.
“If you’re one of those women who think there’s something great about purses, don’t even bother reading this because there will be nothing here for you,” she writes. “This is for women who hate their purses, who are bad at purses, who understand that their purses are reflections of negligent housekeeping, hopeless disorganization, a chronic inability to throw anything away, and an ongoing failure to handle the obligations of a demanding and difficult accessory.”
From a childhood in Los Angeles to a professional life in New York and Washington (to name two of the cities where she lived), Ephron details the food, friends and lifestyles that shaped her life, and she does so in small bites. The stories are both entertaining and touching. They portray a life well lived by a woman brave enough to walk away from a bad marriage on the day her second child was born and honest enough to tell thousands of readers about it. Her approach to life mirrors or epitomizes her mother’s saying that “everything is copy” and spins a yarn – or many – that read like fiction.
Ephron has a refreshingly open and honest perspective on life – from justifying an outrageously expensive apartment on the Upper West Side in New York to the sticky details about her purse – that make reaching the last story a sad reality.
Her flippant tone distances readers just enough to laugh at scenarios that could otherwise hit too close to home, because even if a reader isn’t experiencing an issue that Ephron covers right now, he/she knows someone who is, anticipates its arrival or simply likes to live vicariously.
In an age of reality shows, Ephron has given us a reality check.
Heather Grimshaw is a Denver freelance writer.
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I Feel Bad About My Neck And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
By Nora Ephron
Knopf, 160 pages, $19.95
