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It is what it is, we are what we are.and when in doubt, thank God there's chocolate. You bet.
No. Does this book deserve a Pulitzer.
But is it a good light read with a couple profound thoughts sprinkled here and there. Is it up to some of her other work, for example, Sleepless in Seattle.
Can't say it is. Ephron shouldn't feel bad about her neck or anything else, including this book.
Diana Black WOOF: Women Only Over Fifty
Even if you don't particularly like New York, she enables you to see just what it is that holds such an attraction to it for her. She speaks the truth. She also talks a lot about food, and very little about her career. Sure, it's funny, but underlying the humor is a stark look at the world and what its expectations are. Some things are just not cracked up to what we expect of life.This doesn't mean that life is without its pleasures, without things that we truly love. Indeed, my favorite essay in the book is about the "rapture" of reading (Ephron's words, not mine, although I agree completely that a book you truly love can make you swoon, it's just that powerful).Still, the majority of this slim book of humor essays are written from a particular point of view, a very interesting one at that. She lays out the glamour-less experience of being in the Kennedy White House as an intern.
Nonetheless, a younger person could not have written some of these stories. Life is oriented toward the young, and once a person (particularly a woman) moves past a certain age, it's all about maintenance, and the things you just can't age-proof, like a neck.Not all her essays are about aging. It takes a lifetime of living to learn some of these lessons, to know yourself and your flaws (and assets) so well that you are not afraid to put it all out there. Being able to laugh at ourselves, our mistakes, and life is a rare gift, and Ephron has it, in abundance.
Nora Ephron's book of humorous essays about growing older (and other assorted topics), "I Feel Bad About My Neck" showcases just what it is about Ephron's writing that is so compelling. So unimportant was she that she didn't even merit a desk. The highlight of her internship was having JFK speak to her as he boarded the helicopter for Hyannis Port (which of course, she couldn't hear, due to the rotary blades of the helicopter). For Ephron, that certainly is her home, New York City, whose praises she sings. And, while it may be poetic to say, "I have no regrets about the life I have lived," for most of us, it's just not true. More people are interested in singing their own praises than telling you where they went wrong in life. As humans, particularly aging ones, we just can't measure up. She's had a brilliant career, but she is more willing to talk about her failed marriages than her Oscar nomination or the films she's directed.
Ephron is in that place where she knows exactly who she is, that she is not going to change, and that the sum of her experience is valuable, despite her regrets. We have all made mistakes, and not regretting some of those blunders just doesn't make you human, or maybe honest.Ephron comes by her stories honestly. There are too few people in the world like that. That's why you really should read this book, for the sheer joy of celebrating a life well lived.
Nora Ephron was 64 when she wrote I Feel Bad About My Neck. Ephron offers brilliant insight into the most mundane of things that left me with a few things `to-do' before I grow old and regret that I didn't. I am 24. I loved it.In her words on rapture, `I was reminded of all sorts of things in my own life.I felt alive, and engaged, and positively brilliant, bursting with ideas'. I Feel Bad offers a retrospective glance at Ephron's life and the how it relates to the trials and tribulations of the current aging American women: no holds barred. Although I cannot keep track of the number of times Ephron married and divorced, and though I cannot empathize with her superfluous hair and menopause (yet)., she has taught me this: to go put a bikini on and not take it off until I'm 34, to be sure that the amount of time I spend making myself look good bores some correlation to the number of hours spent having sex because it surely will not in the future, to never marry a man I wouldn't want to be divorced from, to enjoy my body at the age of 35 because I will be nostalgic for it at the age of 45, to keep a journal and write everything down, and most of all, to spend more time staring lovingly at my neck before it is too late.
This book is so funny and so true. I loved reading it. I found myself laughing outloud on my own, which can seem quite silly, but it can't be helped.
As an author myself, the quality of Ephron's prose was not lost on me. If you are one of the dozen or so people who have NOT read this book yet, I highly recommend it. Necks, hair, lips, legs, eyebrows, nails, tummies -- Nora Ephron doesn't miss a female body part in this funny, friendly collection of personal essays. In fact, I enjoyed this collection so much, I've vowed to read humorous essays all summer. It's perfect for the beach, a lazy afternoon, or read aloud to a friend who needs a laugh. My favorite essays covered the absurd expense of being an urban woman, thoughts on why JFK didn't sleep with the author, and a love letter to the author's favorite apartment. Thank you, Nora Ephron. I hope you will be writing regardless of what happens.to your neck.
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