I see the name Ephron, and poof! I’m happy.
Because I am pretty sure that no matter what it is — a book or play or essay or movie — I am going to be caught up in something humorous, heartfelt and genuine.
If you called me an Ephron groupie, you wouldn’t be far off the mark.
It’s true. I’m a devoted fan of all four talented Ephron sisters (Nora, Delia, Hallie and Amy) whose writing consistently makes me swoon.
Was I predisposed to fall in love with Delia Ephron’s new book of essays, “Sister Mother Husband Dog?” Perhaps.
But love it I did.
Delia stole my heart years ago when I read her delightful essay in The New York Times magazine, “How to Eat Like a Child” which would later become a book. Every so often I would catch a piece of hers somewhere, like this in the Times last year: A Christmas Manners Quiz, which made me LOL, so I tweeted her to thank her.
Sister Mother Husband Dog
You will laugh. You will cry. At least, I did.
Delia’s first essay is about the loss of her sister, Nora; the fragility of those last months, the heartbreak of watching a loved one suffer and then slip away, the confusion, the not knowing how to set life back on a normal course.
Nora and Delia were more than sisters; they were collaborators, working together on Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. And a terrific play that ran on Broadway, called Love, Loss and What I Wore, which I saw twice: first with five girlfriends, and then with my mother and two daughters.
The play was funny, warm, poignant.
This is how I would describe the essays in “Sister Mother Husband Dog.”
This is how I imagine Delia to be in real life.
She talks about the collaborations, the upsides and the downs, the adrenaline rush of success as well as the disappointments. She writes honestly about her loving but complex relationship with Nora.
Dogs and bakeries
She is a dog lover and so am I, so her ruminations about life with a dog made me smile. I am in awe of her vast knowledge of pastries present and past in more New York bakeries than you can imagine. She jokes about modern day banking and whether she is Jewish enough and how falling in love with a movie led to her first marriage, which turned out to be a bad idea.
But most eloquent is the essay entitled “Why I Can’t Write About My Mother,” her memory of a brilliant but difficult woman who couldn’t find a way to embrace her daughter, and whose life ended much too soon due to alcoholism, leaving a tragic legacy.
If heartstrings made a sound when they were pulled, mine would have been audible.
Like chatting with your girlfriends.
I love Delia’s writing style. It is much like a typical conversation, in which you start with one thought and happily veer off into something else because there is so much to talk about, but eventually get back on track. Or not.
When I turned the last page, I sat for a moment with the book on my lap, a tear in my eye, a smile on my face.
As it should be.
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I am delighted to be able to give away a copy of “Sister Mother Husband Dog” to one of my readers. Please leave a comment below and a winner will be selected randomly. Only USA addresses are eligible.
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I received a copy of “Sister Mother Husband Dog” from Penguin Random House for an honest review. No other compensation was received.
