Pledge all you want to love each other forever and live happily ever after, it’s not always the outcome. Nora Ephron takes readers on a whimsical, funny, yet poignant journey of marriage, infidelity—and food—in Heartburn (Vintage Books, 1983).
It’s a quick read. I finished it in two days. It’s a perfect book at the beach or indoors by the fireplace.
Rachel Samstat, a cookbook writer, is the lead character. She is seven months pregnant with her second child. It’s at this time she discovers her husband is having an affair. Naturally, she is devastated. She doesn’t know what to do.
While the topic might seem depressing, Ephron is such a skilled writer that she is able to make the reader laugh at her exploits in life, her vivid imagination, and as she figures out what to do about her future. The fact that recipes are interspersed in the book makes it that much more lighthearted and enjoyable.
It’s the writing that will keep you reading, not the plot so much. The book is based on Ephron’s marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, so plenty of people are going to know the outcome.
