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
