This book feels too short to cover the life of Nora Ephron, and yet I cannot argue that the book did not. It feels short but comprehensive, you know? Anyway, it's exactly what it says on the tin: life growing up with somewhat famous but fighting/alcoholic/cheating parents, living in locations that were not NYC, enjoying the heck out of her journalism career, and then writing her way out of it after husband #2 cheated, which segues into a movie career. The book goes into short-but-feels-like-it-covers-things details about all of Nora's movies, eventually juxtaposing them with Nora hiding her own illness even as she carries on with her work. I enjoyed it very much and whipped through that like I did her sister's book yesterday.
As per me, I did bookmark a few details to mention in the review:
- The wagon wheel coffee table actually existed at someone's house. "What could I do? Once she put it in the movie, I couldn't throw it out," the lady (Amanda "Binky" Urban) said.
- The couple that met as camp counselors in When Harry Met Sally were based on her parents.
- I blogged about My Blue Heaven/Goodfellas over here recently, but it comes up again in this book too. Nora's snark on the topic: "The idea, of course, that you could set these people down in, say, Wichita, and expect them to be model citizens, is ludicrous." Damn right, that's why I like the movie. The way Steve Martin sneers "Todd Wilkinson," ''nuff said.
- Nora on Sleepless in Seattle: she wanted to make a movie "about how movies screw up your brain about love," and "if we did a good job, we would become one of the movies that would screw up people's brains about love forever." True dat.
- A quote about "Michael:" "And he likes to get into fights like any good archangel would."
- There's a story about a dinner party in which someone asks, "Who's the biggest prick that anyone has ever worked with?" Nora is immediately "Oh, I love this game!" and is deeply disappointed in Nicole Kidman and her husband Nick for not being able to answer it. "Didn't you sue your manager?" she says to Nicole, who is all "Well, yes, but he was a nice bloke, not a prick." To her husband she is all, "You work with murderers!" and he says, "Yeah, but they're not pricks!" Nora's final response: "I cannot believe you all. I've had a list of nine, I've been trying to whittle it down."
Four stars.