Product Description

Out of analysis and seven months pregnant, cookbook writer Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband is into analysis and an affair and suffers six weeks of intense heartburn. Reprint. 12,500 first printing. NYT.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38042 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-28
• Released on: 1996-05-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780679767954
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
'Funny and touching ... proof that writing well is the best revenge' Chicago Tribune

Review
"Great fun. . . . Though Heartburn bristles ferociously with wit, it's not lacking in soul."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Nora Ephron's first novel is warm, witty and wise." —Harper's Bazaar

About the Author
Nora Ephron is the author of Crazy Salad, Heartburn, Wallflower at the Orgy, and Scribble Scribble. She 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.

Customer Reviews

Carl Bernstein gets a taste of his own medicine
At the 7th month of her pregnancy, Nora Ephron learned that her husband had fallen in love with someone else. "The most unfair thing about this whole business," she writes, "is that I can't even date." That line sets the tone for this novel that Ephron based on her own marriage breakup. A court case resulted from the publication of this book, which tells you just how funny and potentially devastating it is. Her ex got a court order that she could never again write about him or their children. In the novel, instead of being a journalist, essayist, and humorist, the protagonist is a cookbook writer, so there are plenty of recipes sprinkled throughout. Published in 1983, Heartburn marked a turning point not only in Ephron's personal life but also in her writing career as she immediately gained entry into the film world as a writer, director, and producer. She wrote the screenplay for the movie based on this book - but don't see it. It's too angry; all the hilarity and subtle humor and caustic asides are missing.
I own a 1st edition of this book, and I'm NEVER selling it.

When Marriage Gives You Heartburn, Make Blueberry Pies
If I had it to do over again, I would have made a different kind of pie. The pie I threw at Mark made a terrific mess, but a blueberry pie would have been even better, since it would have permanently ruined his new blazer.......so Rachel Samstat muses on her marriage to Mark Feldman.

Nora Ephron's thinly disguised account of her marriage to famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is laugh-out-loud funny in parts, though if you're looking for advice on how to save your marriage, the aforementioned tidbit is typical of the advice you'll get.

Rachel is seven months pregnant with her second child when she learns her husband is not only having an affair with a mutual acquaintance, but has fallen in love with her. This indignity is compounded because, due to Rachel's advanced preganancy, she can't even date. She does manage one innocent flirtation on the subway which, in true slapstick fashion, leads to armed robbery. Ah, the perils of life flitting between New York and Washington.

Short and savvy, this contemporary 80's novel is peppered with recipes since Rachel is a cookbook editor and host of her own cooking show. A collapsing marriage doesn't seem suitable for high-level comedy, but Nora Ephron makes it work and will have you laughing all the way to the bitter end.

Heartwarming
I don't know about you, but sometimes I stumble upon a book that is a salve to my soul; I am not happy about one thing or another, and I need someone to talk to, talk at, or listen to--I need to look into someone else's life so that I can feel human again and not totally strange and alone.

Nora Ephron's HEARTBURN did that for me, and for that I will put it on my bookshelf, along with the many books that have served the same purpose.

On my second reading I could not remember if the story was based on the author's life. I was afraid that I might not enjoy it if it was pure fiction. I was wrong. The book is a very, very funny satire of the Washington scene, whch has not changed. It is also a tale of real angst and heartbreak.

What is basically a sad story has delicious veins of humor, wistfulness, sadness, prosaic pragmatism, and real recipes marbling through it, all of which magically meld into a satisfying whole: but that is what a work of art can do.