Book Report/I Feel Bad About My Neck

I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts On Being A Woman
by Nora Ephron
unabridged audio read by the author
nonfiction, 2006
finished, 9/24/08

In her latest book, I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron writes of the "rapture" she feels after she finishes a book she loves. This is exactly how I felt as I finished listening to the audio cds of this book last night at 11:45 pm. I went to bed rather early, fell right asleep, and then awoke. I put on my headphones, and literally could not stop until it was over, and then I so didn't want it to be over. I loved every minute of being in her presence, and it really did feel like being with her because the author narrated the book.

I don't have a lot of accumulated wisdom from my sixty years on this earth, but there is one thing I have learned. Just because someone is "like" you does not necessarily mean you will like this person. And more often than not, someone who lives a different sort of life may become your closest friend.

Nora Ephron lives quite an opposite life from mine. She is a professional writer, I'm at home. She's had a few divorces, I've been with the same guy my whole adult life. She is a die-hard New York City girl, and I'm all about rural living. She loves her apartment, and I own not only my house, but a fair bit of land. And in fact, I don't feel the least bit bad about my neck. :<) None of these differences is earth-shaking. None of them is fundamental. Yet they are differences, and the kind of differences which would probably ensure we would never meet in the real world. So I am even more deeply happy that she writes and I read because here we meet and are friends, though one-sided, of course. :<)

I love humor, but not the sarcastic, nasty, cynical sort. Nora Ephron's humor is warm, friendly, companionable, and very witty. There were several times I laughed right out loud, something I don't do all that often.

She writes of a friend who just had to have a "Kelly Bag." Now, you may ask (as I did, and as Nora E. did) what is a Kelly bag? It is the little handbag Grace Kelly used to carry around. A friend of Nora Ephron's went to Paris and paid almost $3000 for an old, oops I mean vintage, one! This is part of an essay on women's purses, and it is just hysterical, while telling an underlying serious truth. Women pay lots of money for purses, handbags, satchels, bags. And the author's purse was bought in the subway shop for $28, and is yellow and royal blue plastic. Perfect!

There are writings about the apartment she fell in love with, food fashions over the years, raising children, and the death of her friend. She talks about her summer as an intern to JFK, which had me trying to hold in my laughter as Tom slept. :<) She writes about the books and authors who have meant so much to her. Like many of us, she recalls where she read certain books - right down to the couch material!

I recommend this book to every woman, and every man. It isn't one of those how to age nicely books, nor is it a "woman's book." It is incredibly smart and funny and real and important. I loved it beyond words. I was indeed in "rapture." What more could a reader want?