Friday, January 29, 2010

REVIEW: I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

It didn't take me very long to get through this short collection of essays. I enjoyed it too much - Nora Ephron comes across as being so likeable. I want her to be my best friend, or my weird Aunt Nora. I've watched her films (When Harry Met Sally and You've Got Mail amongst others) but had never considered reading anything else by her until now. Even though this essay collection is aimed at the older woman, I still loved it. In these essays, Ephron is at once smart, funny and charming and what I loved most about this book is how much I was able to relate to Nora Ephron's point of view.

She writes about being ashamed of her neck, finding the right handbag, the amount of time and effort that is placed in maintaining her hair and make-up. She writes about how different parenting styles have changed over the years, she writes about the gradual loss of her eyesight and how that has affected her reading. There are essays about romance, but with a twist - the love of a building, cookbooks over the years, a cabbage strudel she can no longer find. She gives advice. My favourite essay is towards the end, Considering the Alternative, about the death of her best friend. Here, the humour is gone and instead we have a heartbreaking essay about loss.

Read for: 100+ reading challenge, Support Your Local Library, Women Unbound reading Challenge

What's your favourite Nora Eprhon film?

3 comments:

  1. To be honest I didn't know who Nora Ephron was until I read your post. Though saying that, I love You've Got Mail.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I adore Nora Ephron, and I've never read anything of hers! I definitely want ot, though. My favorite of her films: hands-down it would be You've Got Mail. It's one of my most favoritest movies EVER!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have heard the name of this book loads of times, I am very intrigued!

    ReplyDelete

HI! Thank you for leaving a comment, you've just become my new best friend :)