“Crazy Salad” by Nora Ephron

I am attending my 30th college reunion this weekend at Northwestern. I had not planned to attend this year, but knew my father was planning on going to his 60th reunion that same weekend. So after my dad passed away in July, my mother and I decided that we would all attend my 30th, my dad’s 60th and bring my brother along to celebrate his 25th reunion, all marked in 2016. It is very efficient when all of your family members attend the same school because you can save on airfare. And, in fact, my daughter Charlotte is a junior at NU right now. So when thinking about the LLP this week, I wanted to recommend a book that meant something to me in college. I immediately thought about how reading Nora Ephron’s “Crazy Salad” changed my thinking about personal essay writing. In particular her essay called “A Few Words About Breasts” appeared in the 1975 “Crazy Salad” collection and is one of the best pieces of writing I know. When I first read this essay in college it broke my world apart in the best possible way. It made me realized that you could write confessional essays that were also intelligent, funny, whimsical, painful and smart. When I sat down to write this review I sent a text to my daughter and wrote, “Is Nora Ephron at the top of your list of the best writers ever?” Charlotte texted back, “Sort of… Kind of… No, wait, not at all.” This made me come unglued. What?! How is this possible? Just because Ephron died in 2012, way too soon, why are millennials not devoted to her books? So to solve this problem, I am bringing a copy of “Crazy Salad” to Northwestern this weekend and giving it to my daughter. Hopefully she will read it or at the very least use it as a drink coaster or doorstop. But the point is that I want my daughter, who writes beautifully, to be inspired by the work of a woman who gave me the confidence to try to write personal stories all my own. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.