Heartburn
by Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is known generally for her work in film, writing and directing films such as When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and Julie and Julia, but Heartburn, her only novel, is just as good. It follows Rachel, a heavily-pregnant cookbook author, who discovers her husband is in love with another woman. Ephron carefully balances humour, sadness, and, very importantly, food. Heartburn has various references to food, and an especially good recipe for a vinaigrette. The book was adapted for film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.
Recommendations from our site
“What I love about it is what I love about Nora Ephron’s screenplays. It’s the casually-worn yet acute insight she has into the human condition – particularly the female condition – and the comedy with which she explores serious issues….it’s about a woman claiming her own narrative. Nora Ephron wrote Heartburn in 1983, but I think that that’s still enormously important in the current political climate. Particularly given that the man that Nora Ephron was married to in real life was a journalist, and therefore had control of all sorts of narratives.” Read more...
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Elizabeth Day, Memoirist
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