The Most of Nora Ephron

by Nora Ephron
Knopf, 576 pp., $35

Essayist. Humorist. Screenwriter. Filmmaker. Journalist. Blogger. It took four paragraphs for her New York Times obituary to run through all the hats Nora Ephron wore before arriving at “Novelist.” The delayed credit was certainly no slight to her bestselling novel, Heartburn – only an indicator of the breadth of her talent. This hefty new collection pays tribute to “the most” of Ephron, reprinting in full Heartburn, her 1983 roman à clef about the bust-up of her marriage to Washington political reporter Carl Bernstein, as well as her Oscar-nominated screenplay for When Harry Met Sally and the script for two-act play Lucky Guy, Ephron’s final work. Her nonfiction fills out the rest of the book, with dispatches from her days as a reporter, foodie reveries, memoir writing, meditations on feminism, and profiles of famous women (her pungent portrait of Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown belongs on the syllabus for every college magazine writing course). The scope is astonishing, and the writing – witty, self-deprecating, alternately soothing and scalding – is something to be savored.

Perfect for: J-school dropouts, beef borscht fans, mothers, daughters

This article appears in December 20 • 2013.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...