I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron

The conversation went something like this:

Editor at Alfred A. Knopf:  We need a good book for the holidays. What’s Nora got?

Junior Editor:  She’s published some essays for The Huffington Post, a few NY Times pieces, something about Lillian Ross for Vogue…

Editor: Perfect. We’ll package ‘em up in a book.

Junior Editor: I don’t know. It will be pretty slim. [135 pages]

Editor: Nonsense.  Just the type of book her readers love, and they buy them as gifts.

 True and true.

Nora Ephron is one of my favorite writers. The woman behind the many quotable moments in When Harry Met Sally is always entertaining.

But her latest collection of essays, I Remember Nothing, has a rushed-to-press feel and is not as polished as her earlier work, I Feel Bad About My Neck.

The notable exceptions are three essays on aging, two of which are just lists. Doesn’t matter; these three works pack a bigger punch than the entire rest of the collection. Simple, poignant, funny, and true The O Word, What I Won’t Miss, and What I Will Miss are classic Nora.