October's meeting: Heartburn by Nora Ephron

The group was a little depleted when we met in the library at The Victoria but opinions were sent in from absentees. The reaction to Heartburn was clearly split down the middle; one half loving it and the other not very much.

When the novel was first published it was received with mixed and sometimes derisory criticism as a thinly disguised fictionalisation of the breakup of  Ephron’s marriage to the Watergate journalist, Carl Bernstein. It was regarded as a revenge novel by some.

The narrator of the novel is Rachel, who writes cookbooks for a living. She is trying to win back Mark who is having an affair with Thelma with a “neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb and you should see her legs….”  Mark is short. Rachel blames her love of cooking for the affair as her cooking became a way of saying I love you: “I was so busy preparing the perfect peach pie that I wasn’t paying attention”

Some members saw the recipes as intrusive and often insensitive but others found them comfortable and “satisfying as mashed potatoes and as airy as a perfect soufflé” 

However, it was agreed by many, that Ephron’s dry wit and humour showed her talent for spinning comedy from grievous pain, for example, when Rachel’s therapy group gets mugged in the middle of a session, after which one male and one female member admit they were attracted to the mugger! 

Also when Rachel recalls her mother running away with Mel who “honestly believed he was God… but one thing you know about God is that he isn’t called Mel”

There is also the scene where Rachel and Jonathan discuss Mark and Thelma’s choice of couch to feather their love nest, which is both touching and funny. Comedy depends on anguish like “good gravy surely depends on butter and flour”

Some of us felt that they were excluded by the socialite/celebrity name-dropping and they would also have had more belief in Rachel had Ephron distanced herself further from the character. Some also begged the question as to why anyone, seven months pregnant, would repeatedly take back a man who was a compulsive cheat. It was also felt that the jokes began to pall half way through the book with the plot becoming far-fetched.

One member re-read the book. She hated it at first and loved it the second time around! Perhaps the star rating of 3 might have been higher had we all done that. 

Ephron directed Silkwood, and was screenwriter for Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally. She once said that “the benefit of directing rather than writing is that no-one can be held responsible other than you” 

Her mantra was “Be a heroine of your life and not a victim”

Our next meeting will be Thursday, November 1st when we will discuss Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. This meeting will be celebrating Low Fell Book Club’s third anniversary. (Those attending are requested to bring a dish, preferably with something in it! …and some Ephron vinaigrette?)