Review of I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron

Title:  I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections

Author:  Nora Ephron

Publishing Information:  November 2010 by Vintage

How I Got This Book:  I purchased it at a bookstore.

My Thoughts:  I've already mentioned my love for Nora Ephron.  She was truly amazing.  So funny and intelligent and relatable...even though aside from being women who love to write, we really don't have much in common.  She inspires me to look at life and see the humor in the situation because there is almost always humor in any situation.  Some notable exceptions, of course.  I mean, think about her novel Heartburn, which recounts the break-up of her marriage to Carl Bernstein (I always have to check because I never can remember if it was Woodward or Bernstein she married!) and has plenty of moment of humor.

For those of you who don't know, my grandfather passed about a month ago.  That explains most of my absence from the world.  After we got home from the hospital that morning, I couldn't sleep, but I knew I would be heading to my grandparents' house later in the day, so I started packing.  I didn't know how long I would be there.  I grabbed some clothes.  Then I walked around my bookshelves several times grabbing books that seemed remotely interesting.  I think I grabbed close to ten books that time.  When I came home and headed back up the next day, I did the same thing again.  I had about twenty books total that I packed.  Then I went to the bookstore and bought some more.  While at the bookstore, I spied this collection of Ephron's writings, which I purchased even though I had brought her larger collection with me.  I finished reading within a couple of days.

It was especially apt because it was the last collection she published before her death in 2012.  Her death came as a surprise for many because she had not disclosed her illness.  Upon looking back at this collection, one must wonder whether she purposely left clues or hints that her time was short with the inclusion of essays "What I Won't Miss" and "What I Will Miss."  Both essays are lists of big and small things--she wouldn't miss dry skin or funerals, but she would miss her kids and butter.  These essays provided me with a lot to think about.  I haven't yet composed my lists (for the record, nothing is wrong with me)...emphasis on the "yet."

The collection also included the titular essay, "I Remember Nothing," about how she knows that she's experienced a lot of big moments, amazing rock concerts and whatnot, but all she remembers about the experience is that she thought about whether she would eat afterwards, where she would eat, what she would order, and so on.  I could TOTALLY relate to that.  There is so much of life that I am worried I have already forgotten.  It's not even so much about living in the moment, though that is kind of part of it.  Recording things as soon as they happen is an important thing I got out of this essay.

She included several essays about food.  This is a topic she wrote about quite a bit, though she was never known amongst her group of friends as a cook, in that no one really asked her for her recipes on anything.  She writes some fun and interesting things about food.  Some I disagree with--I actually prefer egg white omelets to regular and I don't eat them for health reasons--but most I am just so enamored with, like everything else she wrote.

Five stars.  For sure.

Now I am off to pick up another of her collections as I recover from a major book hangover.