We Remember Everything: Nora Ephron Leaves Her Mark … Again

November 10, 2010

By Jane Doe

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Nora Ephron — author, playwright, screenwriter, and most powerful female comedy director in Hollywood — is back with I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections. Perhaps you fell in love with her when you first saw “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Julie & Julia,” or any of her masterpieces in between. Ephron may have her own list of things about which she wants to know nothing, but we’ve got a list of more ways for you to get to know the woman who charms us again and again.

I Remember Nothing

Nora Ephron returns with her first book since the astounding success of I Feel Bad About My Neck, taking a cool, hard, hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten.

I Feel Bad About My Neck

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Heartburn

Is it possible to write a sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage? If the writer is Nora Ephron, the answer is a resounding yes. For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of “Sleepless in Seattle” reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.

Wallflower at the Orgy

In this classic collection of magazine articles, Ephron does what she does best: embrace American culture with love, cynicism, and unmatched wit. From tracking down the beginnings of the self-help movement to dressing down the fashion world’s most powerful publication to capturing a glimpse of a legendary movie in the making, these timeless pieces tap into our enduring obsessions with celebrity, food, romance, clothes, entertainment, and sex. Whether casting her ingenious eye on renowned director Mike Nichols, Cosmopolitan magazine founder Helen Gurley Brown – or herself, as she chronicles her own beauty makeover – Ephron deftly weaves her journalistic skill with the intimate style of an essayist and the incomparable talent of a great storyteller.

Imaginary Friends

Although Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy probably only met once in their lives, their names will be linked forever in the history of American literary feuds: They were legendary enemies, especially after McCarthy famously announced to the world that every word Hellman wrote was a lie, “including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” The public battle and the legal squabbling that ensued ended, unsatisfactorily for all, with Hellman’s death.

In Imaginary Friends, Nora Ephron brilliantly and hilariously resuscitates these two bigger-than-life women to give them a postmortem second act, and the chance to really air their differences.

When Harry Met Sally

Rob Reiner’s enormously funny and moving “When Harry Met Sally” – a romantic comedy about the difficult, frustrating, awful, funny search for happiness in an American city, where the primary emotion is unrequited love – delighted audiences everywhere. Now, the complete screenplay is published. Written by Nora Ephron – author of screenplays for Silkwood and Heartburn (from her own bestselling novel) – When Harry Met Sally is as hilarious on the page as it is on the screen.

Author photo above © Elena Seibert Photography

Tags: Essayists, Heartburn, Helen Gurley Brown, Humor, I Feel Bad About My Neck, I Remember Nothing, Imaginary Friends, Julie & Julia, Lists, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, NPR, Rob Reiner, Sleepless in Seattle, Wallflower at the Orgy, When Harry Met Sally