I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron's book of essays, I Feel Bad About My Neck, was probably a bestseller because so many of us could identify with the essay by that name.  I actually prefer her latest collection, I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections.   While Ephron seems to tell more personal stories.  At the same time, there are so many articles about aging and change that it's easy to relate to them.

The essay, "I Remember Nothing" starts by saying it's easy to start down that slippery slope of forgetting names and words.  Ephron used the same memory tricks many of us do, scrolling through the alphabet, trying to remember the first letter of a word.  But, then she goes into details as to events in her life that she can't remember, such as meeting Eleanor Roosevelt and covering the Beatles on their first trip to the U.S.  Then, she brings it back to something we can all relate to; "The Senior Moment has become the Google moment, and it has a much nicer, hipper, younger, more contemporary sound, doesn't it?"  I love it that she admits we can't retrieve the memories of our lives, but we can retrieve facts.

Ephron's collection includes stories of her mother, comments about chicken soup, e-mail, and getting older.  It may be a glimpse into her life, but it also contains reflections on our own lives.  The humor, the nostalgia, the bittersweet recognition, will all make a connection for those of us who are women of a certain age.  I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections will become a collection to pass between friends.

I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron.  Knopf, ©2010. ISBN 9780307595607 (hardcover), 160p.

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