I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections (Vintage) [Paperback]

Nora Ephron (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 1, 2011 | Series: Vintage

Nora Ephron returns with her first book since the astounding success of I Feel Bad About My Neck, taking a hilarious look at the past, the present, and the future, bemoaning the vicissitudes of modern life, and recalling with her signature clarity and wisdom everything she hasn’t (yet) forgotten.

Filled with insights and observations that instantly ring true—and could have come only from Nora Ephron—I Remember Nothing is pure joy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reading these succinct, razor-sharp essays by veteran humorist (I Feel Bad About My Neck), novelist, and screenwriter-director Ephron is to be reminded that she cut her teeth as a New York Post writer in the 1960s, as she recounts in the most substantial selection here, "Journalism: A Love Story." Forthright, frequently wickedly backhanded, these essays cover the gamut of later-life observations (she is 69), from the dourly hilarious title essay about losing her memory, which asserts that her ubiquitous senior moment has now become the requisite Google moment, to several flimsy lists, such as "Twenty-five Things People Have a Shocking Capacity to Be Surprised by Over and Over Again," e.g., "Movies have no political effect whatsoever." Shorts such as the several "I Just Want to Say" pieces feature Ephron's trademark prickly contrariness and are stylistically digestible for the tabloids. Other essays delve into memories of fascinating people she knew, such as the Lillian Hellman of Pentimento, whom she adored until the older woman's egomania rubbed her the wrong way. Most winning, however, are her priceless reflections on her early life, such as growing up in Beverly Hills with her movie-people parents, and how being divorced shaped the bulk of her life, in "The D Word." There's an elegiac quality to many of these pieces, handled with wit and tenderness. (Nov.) (c)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

The legions of readers who loved I Feel Bad about My Neck (2006) will pounce on Ephron’s pithy new collection. A master of the jujitsu essay, Ephron leaves us breathless with rueful laughter. As the title suggests, she writes about the weird vagaries of memory as we age, although she is happy to report that the Senior Moment has become the Google Moment. Not that any gadget rescued her when she failed to recognize her own sister. But the truth is, Ephron remembers a lot. Take her stinging reminiscence of her entry into journalism at Newsweek in the early 1960s, when “girls,” no matter how well qualified, were never considered for reporter positions. An accomplished screenwriter (When Harry Met Sally . . . and Julie & Julia) in a family of screenwriters, Ephron looks further back to her Hollywood childhood and her mother’s struggles with alcohol. Whether she takes on bizarre hair problems, culinary disasters, an addiction to online Scrabble, the persistent pain of a divorce, or that mean old devil, age, Ephron is candid, self-deprecating, laser-smart, and hilarious. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Now a popular blogger in addition to everything else, Ephron hit it so big with her last best-seller, a 500,000 print run is planned for her latest. --Donna Seaman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (November 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307742806
• ISBN-13: 978-0307742803
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (176 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nora Ephron has received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay for When Harry Met Sally, Silkwood, and Sleepless in Seattle, which she also directed. She lives in New York City with her husband, writer Nicholas Pileggi.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

122 of 131 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars My Disc Is Not Full It Is Empty November 9, 2010

By prisrob TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Nora Ephron has written a very humorous book with which I agree. She makes fun of herself as she ages, and I think many of us can identify with her plight. As she says, her memory is akin to a disc, it is not full, it is empty.

'I Remember Nothing' is a small book but filled with some wisdom and observations that make it well worth the read. The first chapter is a take on the title, 'I Remember Nothing', and it appears that is true. She relates many of the instances she can remember where she forgot. The films, books and times that were filled with fun, but gosh, what was the name of that actor. We can relate, where are my keys and glasses? Nora copes with her forgetfulness by keeping a list of things she refuses to know about. I agree with The Kardashians, American Idol and the Bachelor. But, soccer and mojitos, no way. 'Who Are You' another chapter deals with people you can't remember. A silly chapter, really. I have no trouble telling someone I am sorry but I can't remember their first name. Nora goes through hoops, it seems, to disguise her forgetfulness. 'Journalism, A Love Story, is the reason to read this book. This is a love story of her profession, and she tells us about her first job at 'Newsweek' and her rise as a woman in the field of journalism. In-between she gives us a few stories of Philip Graham, Newsweek's owner and his difficulty with Bi-Polar Disorder. The life of a young woman working in 1960's New York City, hard liquor, no wine; no take-out and lots of swearing, but not the F word. She got a job at the New York Post and started writing by-lines, and she learned her craft. She then went on to writing for magazines and films. She married and divorced and remarried. She learned that she was correct, she loved journalism and it was right for her.

Nora talks about her alcoholic parents and in particular her mother, and how she held her mother up as an idol until her alcoholism took her away. The story of her mother and Lillian Ross is memorable and quite profound. The bits and pieces of her life give us a glimpse into the soul of Nora Ephron, and she doesn't really want to give much away. She talks about diets, Teflon, her bald spot, the meatloaf named after her. The Christmas dinners with friends of twenty two years, and the memories and the people she loves. Divorce and how it became who she was for a time, and then how, she is getting old, not older but old. Times change, the children leave, it is just the two of you and how you cope, and then finally, the list of things she won't miss: emails, vacuum cleaners, mammograms, and the things she will miss, bacon, waffles, her kids, her friends- a much longer list than any of the others.

'I Remember Nothing' is a love story of growing old and older, a time that many of us will face, and Nora Ephron faces old age with grace and humor. And, I like it. I want to grow old just like her. Too much to do and see, and so little tme.

Recommended. prisrob 11-09-10

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112 of 129 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars What A Waste Of Time And Money November 14, 2010

By montanarose

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love Nora Ephron: her books, her screenplays, her essays. But, boy, did she snooker me into this one. I purchased it for my Kindle and inhaled it in under an hour. I got to the end and said "huh?" to myself ( "huh?" as in, is that all there is?)

Yeah, there were a few bon mots, a few chuckles, but not much of substance (even humorous substance). I wish I'd gone to my local bookstore and curled up in an easy chair with a latte and a copy of this book: I could have polished it off around the same time I finished my latte.

What's sad is that Ephron could offer us -- her sixty-ish female cohorts -- so much more. More depth, more reality, more humanity; along with the humor and the brittle witticisms. Save your money on this one: go to your local bookstore and enjoy that latte for a third of the price of the book.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! November 20, 2010

By Anne Raymond

Format:Hardcover

I loved Nora Ephron's "I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections". It is a book of musings - some serious, some funny, all interesting. I especially appreciate the way it was written making you feel like you're sitting across from a friend chatting over a cup of coffee. It is a short book but one that definitely hit the spot.