Nora Ephron was a talented and prolific writer.
In this book, Ephron has compiled a series of mini stories, essays in a way, on many of the subjects woman concern themselves with as they age. I am certainly in this camp. The part about reading glasses and the slack in the skin around her neck hit home. But it also had me laughing.
“The neck is a dead giveaway. Our faces are lies and our necks are the truth. You have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you wouldn’t have to do that if it had a neck.”
This book also addresses exercise routines we hate, hairstyles, children, cooking and purses. It’s honest, it’s funny and thought provoking. Life is what you make of it and she certainly had a full life.
A quick search of a woman’s handbag reveals quite a bit about her life.
This is true of my handbag when I have been carrying it for a while. It amasses many, sometimes useless, items that tell a story:
“a morass of loose Tic Tacs, solitary Advils, lipsticks without tops, Chap Sticks of unknown vintage, little bits of tobacco even though there has been no smoking going on for at least 10 years, … English coins from a trip to London last October … and an unprotected toothbrush that looks as if it has been used to polish silver”.
Another quote I liked:
“When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.”
The first book I read by Ephron was Heartburn. This was a book selection for the Cook the Books Club and I did manage to get in under the wire for the deadline. I wrote about Heartburn HERE at Squirrel Head Manor.
More about the author:
In addition to I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron wrote as well as Heartburn, Crazy Salad, Wallflower at the Orgy, and Scribble Scribble. She directed the movie Julie & Julia and received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally. She also directed Silkwood and Sleepless in Seattle.
Novel Meals 
I read this a number of years ago, preblogging (it was a copy I bought as a gift, and I sneakily read it before I gave it away). I loved it too, and meant to read more by Nora, but have never come across any more of her books. I remember her saying that necks fall apart at 43, and I was 43 when I read it. Now I know it’s true….I must check out more of her writing.
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