I Feel Bad About My Neck

Publisher's Summary

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad, discusses everything, from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she can't stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her there's no quick fix for that.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton...from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.

Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-out-loud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat.

©2006 Nora Ephron (P)2006 Random House, Inc.

Critic Reviews

 

• The Book Sense Book of the Year Award, Adult Nonfiction, 2007

"Ephron returns to her print roots with a new collection of essays reflecting the perspective of an aging, but still crackling sharp, cultural scribe." (Boston Globe)

"This current gatherum of hard and funny truths spares neither the author's pride nor her audience's, but it does salve wounds, and many of Ephron's insights are bound to come in handy." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Ephron's insights make the book an enjoyable romp.... For people who want a little candor and humor about not only hanging on but getting on, this book is for you." (The New York Post)

Don't make me get out of the car...

...I'm still listening to "I Feel Bad About My Neck."

It took me a little while to get used to Nora Ephron's narration of her own work. Her reading style reminds me of a kindergarten teacher who reads slowly, pronouncing each word carefully, to help her students learn to read. Not quite how I imagine her voice in my head when I read her work. Her voice trails off at the ends of some sentences, and I had to reel back and turn up the volume to catch some key phrases.

But once I got past that, the book itself was wonderful -- alternately hillarious and touching. I listened on my commute, and I was sorely tempted sometimes to just keep driving so that I could hear more about Ms. Ephron's views of growing past that "certain age" in America -- more about hair dyes and nail jobs, more about face creams that promise everything and deliver a big hole in your wallet, more about beige couches and cooking, more about Bill Clinton, Ms. Ephron's confessions about JFK, and a final essay on the one inevitability in life.

With some audiobooks, I get in the car and think, "Oh, yeah, I guess I should listen some more." With this one, it was, "Oh, hey, gotta get in the car and listen to that Nora Ephron book again!"

19 of 20 people found this review helpful

I love Nora Ephron's narration of these 'thoughts'

I am listening for the second time to this book because I enjoyed listening to the new "Heartburn" audio so much, I decided to have a Nora Ephron festival. The first time I heard this audiobook I had to pull over to the side of the road to avoid an accident because I was laughing so hard. I love hearing Nora Ephron read her own work and I am really enjoying this book the second time around. I find her thoughts witty, biting and well worth my time. I find myself writing once again "i usually prefer professional narrators but....". I think hearing Nora Ephron narrate her own essays has made me finally conclude that hearing the immediacy of some authors read their own work is worth the somewhat less professional reading quality - the ability to connect directly to the wisdom and humor that inspired the text is quite special. Now that she is gone, the recording of her work in her own voice is even more intense an experience for me. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

nora, just chatting, truly

i loved this audiobook, and i felt nora ephron was speaking directly to me. i felt as if we were sitting in a tiny coffee shop in new york city and chatting warmly, stopping only to sip our cappucinos and watch the world go by. i listened to this just after her passing, to honor her memory and her work.

there aren't a lot of bells and whistles to i feel bad about my neck -- these are nora's thoughts on the effort involved in women's beauty regimens and how we all (herself included) continue to subject ourself to a ridiculous amount of plucking and shaving and lotioning every day; falling in and out of love with advice from certain cooks on hosting; a diatribe on purses and one on moving in new york; and now-moving thoughts on aging and death in our society today. not too deep and not too funny but honest. i felt a simple truth in her words that i don't feel in a lot of memoirs today, as they try to be as humourous as sedaris or moving or painful. here are just some simple thoughts, some musings to muse over. what a concept, in today's age.

i also enjoyed her reading of this book, although i know from reviews some others didn't -- i felt she was just speaking her truth, not dressing the narration up or making it too much of a story. and i think that's fine, i think that is just what it was meant to be. rip nora.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Witty and dry humor

Any additional comments?

If you want to better enjoy this book, speed up to 1 and and half for the listening speed. I think that's her true reading speed, but her voice was slowed down to disguise that this book is extremely short.
I still felt it was worth purchasing. The story about her being perhaps the only White House intern who failed to attract JFK's sexual interest because of her bad perm is priceless...

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Funny and Witty

Great listen for women of a certain age who will definitely be able to relate. I found myself laughing out loud and shaking my head Yes Yes! Nora Ephron had a great wit and will be missed

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

For an older woman.

What did you love best about I Feel Bad About My Neck?

Nora Ephron's wit and snarky humor.

If you’ve listened to books by Nora Ephron before, how does this one compare?

This was the first Nora Ephron book for me. It was a gift. While I did enjoy the book, I know I was not target audience. Young women will still find it funny, but women 40+ will really enjoy it.

What about Nora Ephron’s performance did you like?

I like that she has a very unique voice, but that it isn't grating or difficult to listen to. I felt like she was sittingin my car with me, telling me all these great stories from her life.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Getting older doesn't get easier, but it does get funnier.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

not for the under 60

I bought this book because it looked so funny. I know at 42, I DO feel bad about my neck!! But this book should come with the caviat that it's really geared towards the 60 age bracket. Empty nests, the difficulty of riding a bicycle, etc are just not as funny if you haven't experienced them. Overall it was a very cute, upbeat book, and an easy listen. I would recommend it, but warn it's more of a chuckle than a belly laugh for the under 60 group.

11 of 13 people found this review helpful

not only for older women!

This is hysterical...in that typical Ephron witty way...the delivery is perfect.I would love to listen to this with friends...it really makes you laugh out loud at our human foibles and, sooner or later, she'll cover one that you share too.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

hysterical

I am in my 50's and found this book to be totally entertaining! Loved it...so true!

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

I bought this book because I wanted a light humorous read. I did not think it was particularly funny. I never laughed out loud, I don't think I even chuckled. Laughing as we get older is one thing and worth doing, but this book didn't laugh at the issues of aging so much as whine about them. Her conclusion was that there isn't much good about aging, indeed if anything good at all - it is much better to be young. I was looking forward to wit and humor and found little of either. I am a fan of her work so was disappointed in this example of it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful