Book Review: Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Click here to purchase the audiobook narrated by Meryl Streep on Amazon! $17

Published: First Edition 1983

Pages: 179

My Copy Came From: Amazon

Read Via: Audiobook

My Like Level: 2 out of 5

Genre: Rom-Com, Divorce, Cooking, Chick-Lit

Book Summary from Amazon:

Is it possible to write a sidesplitting novel about the breakup of the perfect marriage? If the writer is Nora Ephron, the answer is a resounding yes. For in this inspired confection of adultery, revenge, group therapy, and pot roast, the creator of Sleepless in Seattle reminds us that comedy depends on anguish as surely as a proper gravy depends on flour and butter.

Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel Samstat discovers that her husband, Mark, is in love with another woman. The fact that the other woman has “a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb and you should see her legs” is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel writes cookbooks for a living. And in between trying to win Mark back and loudly wishing him dead, Ephron’s irrepressible heroine offers some of her favorite recipes. Heartburn is a sinfully delicious novel, as soul-satisfying as mashed potatoes and as airy as a perfect soufflé.

My Thoughts:

I had no idea that this book written in 1983 was a movie starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson!

To be quite honest, I really didn’t connect with this book at all, but I am thinking that I may rent the movie since I like these two actors. In the novel, the characters are bratty, whiny, socialites. I didn’t find any redeeming qualities in any of them, even the main character. I found parts to be funny, and enjoyed the narration by Meryl which is why I gave it two stars. Maybe I would have liked the book better had I read it back in the 80’s? I was born the year it was written though, so the subject matter would have gone right over my head. LOL. One thing I will add is that I would like to see a hard copy of the book so that I could write down those yummy recipes that are scattered throughout. I felt hungry listening to the descriptions of the yummy dishes, and thought at least once or twice how nice it would be to try making them on my own!