Apparently, her ex-husband was upset after its publication which, after reading, you would expect but also, if you don’t want people to write shitty things about you, don’t do shitty things. Rachel Samstat, a food writer, discovers at seven months pregnant that her husband is having an affair with an extremely tall person. In her 2004 introduction, written twenty-two years after the book was originally published, Nora comes right out and states that it’s a very thinly veiled biography.

That is what ‘Heartburn’ is in a nutshell: your very funny, very close friend telling you all the gossip. You’re in her Manhattan apartment, and after your second dirty martini, leaning on the kitchen countertop, eating cold lasagne leftovers straight from the fridge, she decides to dish on her ex-husband. Nora (- that’s right, I feel we should be on a first-name basis) has a way of writing that genuinely feels like she is confiding in only you, after a solid couple of hours day-drinking. The two of them would never have gotten to the intimate poo chat without me. My sister would absolutely be there, but we would share Nora, which I think my sister should be totally chill with. That being said, I imagine I would wait a respectful amount of time, and once she and Nora were at the coffee-once-a-week friendship level, I would swoop in and take us all the way to the talking-intensely-about-our-morning-poos stage. I wouldn’t want to steal my sister’s friend crush- we’re a big family and it’s important to give everyone space to be themselves to allow ownership of our dreams and desires.

My sister feels very strongly that Nora Ephron passed too soon, the reason being that they were destined to be best friends.

“‘Heartburn’ in a nutshell: your very funny, very close friend telling you all the gossip.”

Book heartburn by nora ephron