I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

Title: I Feel Bad About My Neck
Author: Nora Ephron
Publisher: Knopf
Genre: Humor Non-Fiction
Pages: 160
How I Read It: Hard copy gifted to me.

Synopsis: With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally . . . , Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad, discusses everything–from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she can’t stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her there’s no quick fix for that.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years (“I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at”) and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton–from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.

Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-out-loud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat.

*Synopsis taken from Goodreads

My Review: I saw Nora Ephron on The Daily Show years ago when this book first came out, and I absolutely adored her from the start.  I know I’m coming late to the game with all of this, but I decided right away that I wanted to read this book.  Obviously that did not happen right away like I wanted it to, but better late than never, right?

I was a little worried that this book wouldn’t call to me, that I wouldn’t get it, simply because I’m not yet to the age that Nora was necessarily writing about.  However, I quickly figured out that it just didn’t matter.  The things that she says are things we all think about deep down as women, because we know we’re all going to get there at some point, and let’s be honest: everyone worries about aging.

Nora throws in a lot of antics about her life in general, things from her earlier life in her first and second marriages, the time she was raising her kids, and growing older to the point that you start seeing your friends pass on.

To an extent, the book is bittersweet now knowing that she herself passed away recently, which was actually the kick in the pants that got me to finally pick the book up.  Sadly, she talks about things like what life will be like when she’s in her 80s, and she unfortunately didn’t make it to that point.

That all aside, this one was hilarious and I definitely laughed out loud several times.  I had no idea that she was so prolific an author/screenwriter before reading this, which makes me want to take another look at some of the movies she was responsible for.  Before I’d even finished the book, I was recommending it to several people, and I’m sure I will continue to do so.

Read this book if: I think this is probably a book all women should read, it’s pretty likely you’ll enjoy it, and I intend to keep it around for rereading an unspecified amount of time in the future!

My Rating: 4/5 – Borderline amazing!