Essays
Random House
March 1, 2012
221
If there is any solace in growing older, it is that you will find yourself guffawing in hysterical recognition at the situations Nora Ephron describes, from the impossibility of trying to remember people's names at parties,to struggling with the new technology. You will find yourself rolling off the sofa snorting with laughter as she recalls with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn't (yet) forgotten, including what it feels like to produce a flop - and you will swallow down a lump in your throat at the poignancy of her insights into the pain of losing friends, and the guilt of separation and divorce. One thing is for sure, there is nobody else who can put her finger so very precisely, so beguilingly, with so much wisdom and with so much wit, on what we all struggle with as we journey into our later years.
‘Oh my god that is totally me’.
Delivering on its promised solace in growing older and guffaws for hysterical recognition this collection of essay’s is like another book club member personified; confessing, confiding and griping. The Artist praised its conversational style; like meeting someone at a party and being regaled over a vodka gimlet.
There was an easy general consensus on the quality of the writing – witty, accomplished, polished, precise. Its brevity, left some wanting more and others disappointed – for The Techie, a voracious reader, and The Connoisseur who was settling down to a rare afternoon’s reading, it didn’t touch the sides.
“I Remember Nothing” has 23 pieces of writing, some short some shorter. The best, the title piece, “Journalism: A Love Story”, and the story of Lillian Hellman and her mother, are so because of their relatively longer length and depth. The less satisfying (“I Just Want to Say: Chicken Soup”, “The Six Stages of E-Mail”) , have the throw away feeling of blog entries or magazine columns (which they may have been originally we think?).
Perhaps this is the nature of conversation, sometimes engrossing and exposing, sometimes flippant and funny. Though out you Nora is speaking to you as friend and audience and you feel that bit gladder for getting to know her.
Score awarded by Bibliofemme: 3.3 out of 5
What the other femmes had to say
4/5
2/5
4/5
4/5
4/5
2/5
