Book Review: "The Most of Nora Ephron"

Nora Ephron is probably best remembered for her wit, her intelligence and her brilliant film-writing abilities. I mean, who can argue with a film like When Harry Met Sally on how witty it is? A brilliant compilation of her best writing has been put together in this handy, hilarious, sarcastic and more than often, sardonic book. She goes from looking at her own life and writings into wanting to live like Dorothy Parker and be 'that woman' at the table to addressing how California never has any nice dinner parties to how cookbooks are more of a hinderance to cooking than a help. This book is basically what happens when you actually let women speak - we will decimate everything you thought we were about and then tell you why it doesn't suit you either. Oh, and then we'll probably make fun of you for even thinking that in the first place. Addressing all the assumptions and mundane qualities of life, Nora Ephron makes a brilliant appeal to the human soul to rid itself of prententions whilst also peering out of the window of classiness trying to redeem her Capote-like charm on paper. It's a wonderful blend of self-depricating comedy, observational sarcasm and American ironies.

Here are some of my favourite things about it:

1) The Boston Photographs

Nora Ephron writes about the photographs published in a Boston newspaper that featured the moment before the death of a 19-year-old girl who fell from a window of a house. Her comment that death is such a main feature of life that the pictures should be allowed into print and that, because they shock the reader they should be printed in a newspaper shows the three-dimensional thinking of Ephron. The fact that the phone calls of complaints the newspaper received should be observed as an act of defiance by the newspaper to show what actually happens to people instead of covering it up with story and shock language shows that Ephron knew that in some aspects "photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism".

It's most obviously one of the best pieces in the book because of her argument being built upon the fact that newspapers should intend their readers to have a reaction to the story through their photography. It reminds me of the poem War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy where newspapers will placate their readers with unfriendly photography, but the actual photography is soul-crushing, not simply unfriendly. Ephron makes a similar argument here.

2) Dorothy Parker

"All I wanted was to come to New York and be Dorothy Parker. The funny lady. The only lady at the table. The woman who made her living by her wit. Who wrote for The New Yorker..."

I think this is the line that hit me the most in this chapter because there was a time where I wanted exactly that. That was before I realised that I wasn't very funny, I was mostly friends with women (or nobody, really) and The New Yorker would never have me writing for them (think about it, it would be a travesty). I also realised that no matter how much money I had, I would never move to New York - mainly because I despise the place.

When Nora Ephron writes about Dorothy Parker playing anagrams in her home that made me inquisitive about that time when Anderson Cooper explained something about Truman Capote going to his house - I can't remember where it was from though. The two thoughts were instantly connected together and when I was reading about her thoughts upon Dorothy Parker, I was intrigued to think that she is less like Parker than I thought. For one, Nora Ephron is far more satirical and funnier than Parker ever was (in my opinion only). Secondly, I find Ephron to be the better writer (again, only my opinion).

Finally, I think they were two different ideas of people, two people with different writing standards and that the standards faced by Ephron were, in fact, far more strict as there were far more people coming for her writing than she was at first, aware of. Parker had it ever so slightly easier where she was at a time where the internet was non-existent. Ephron had criticisms good and bad barraging in every direction, for those of you who remember the film Julie and Julia I hope you see what I mean.

Though, you can't argue that the observation is bitter, clever, appreciative and witty with a sense of dissatisfaction for not becoming that every woman can relate to.

3) About Having People to Dinner

Nora Ephron's satirical look at the dinner party is one of the joys of reading. She makes weird observations about the table size and style depending on the guests, who they are, whether they know each other and how they should be seated in order for conversation to be at a maximum but not get boring. She makes frequent observations on what to serve at a dinner party with her 'rule of 4' being well established (and something I might try myself in the near future), and alongside all of this there are comments on why California never has any nice dinner parties, ever.

I've got to say this is probably one of the funnier pieces of her writing because it feels very neurotic. I can't say that it doesn't feel authentic, but it feels instead like every single woman ever who has panicked about a dinner party with 'wild eyes' in the kitchen. I couldn't help but think back to whenever I make Christmas Dinner and honestly, it couldn't be more than the absolute truth. I'm running back and forth into the kitchen, prepping the entire meal all day for people to finish eating within half an hour and then, I have to clean the entire place from top to bottom. Brilliant, yet exhausting and glad I only have to do it once a year - Ephron really takes all the emotion and makes it a laughing matter. It makes a girl feel slightly better about the ordeal in the end.

Conclusion:

All in all, I have to say that one of the best books I have read this year has been The Most of Nora Ephron.