Trying to digest the news that her husband was not out looking for socks as he so often told her, Rachel escapes back to her hometown of New York City with her two-year-old son and falls back into her old routines of group therapy, riding the subway, and thinking about the perfect brisket while her father escapes from his sanatorium on a regular basis.Īs with all Nora Ephron works, this novel has wit, levity, and most of all, a real honest-to-goodness soul. employee (what do you mean it’s not normal to not want to throw a party with the woman your husband is sleeping with?). Through a delightful trope of Rachel’s memory, we learn about her previous marriage (destroyed by her now ex–best friend), her family life (doesn’t everyone have that perfect goody-two-shoes sister who just has to be there while both parents go off the deep end?), and her current life in D.C., filled with the not-so-obvious politics that accompany being the wife of a D.C.

In this fun, pocket-sized novel, the very pregnant cookbook writer Rachel Samstat learns that her husband Mark is not only cheating on her, but expects her to be okay with it while he continues seeing the other woman. Maybe you’ve seen the film adaptation with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, but even so that doesn’t spoil the deliciousness of Ephron’s novel, a roman à clef about her own marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein. And that is what makes you adore Heartburn. She knew how to make you laugh, make you cry, and most of all, make you adore the city she called her own through a strange mixture of elegance, charm, and self-deprecation. She loved the strange bagel places that seem far too pretentious for their own good and the fact that you can get mugged by the nice guy who winked at you on the subway. Nora Ephron loved New York because she loved all the things that made New York the greatest/worst city in the world. It was Nora Ephron’s version of New York. But that’s just it: it wasn’t New York I loved. You see, I had just watched my first Nora Ephron movie ( You’ve Got Mail), and I knew I’d found the place where I belonged. When I was seven years old, I became obsessed with New York City.

Heartburn nora ephron review