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Read Wallflower At The Orgy (2007)

Wallflower at the Orgy (2007)

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Rating
3.41 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0553385054 (ISBN13: 9780553385052)
Language
English
Publisher
bantam

Wallflower At The Orgy (2007) - Plot & Excerpts

I knew Nora Ephron as a screenwriter and filmmaker, but I was unaware of her literary output until I read various obituaries following her death earlier this year. Wallflower at the Orgy is the first book of hers I have read and won't be the last.Firstly, what an awesome title. It is explained in the Introduction (and sort of recanted in the Preface to the 1980 edition) and beautifully captures the theme running through many of the articles, the observation of remarkable people doing wonderful/shocking/exciting things, without much direct participation.Despite many of the subject areas (the Food Establishment in the late 1960s, Helen Gurley Brown, Jacqueline Susann and Women's Wear Daily vs Cosmo) being well out of my frame of reference, the writing was strong enough to quickly acquaint me with the major events under discussion. And despite the sizeable gap in time, much of what was under discussion resonated, making me laugh and making me think. Not all of the discussion points translated so well for twenty-first century reading (most notably in the article on Jacqueline Susann, when Nora notes: "Most women, I think, do not want to read hardcore pornography. They do not even want to read anything terribly technical about the sex act" - I would love to know what she thought about the bestsellers in 2012!) but as a commentary on life in the late 60s and early 70s, I feel like I know have a better understanding.So once again, I find that non-fiction ain't so bad. I'll be getting my hands on more of Nora Ephron's books very soon.

This was my first Ephron and I think that I may need to try one more before I make any decisions about how I feel about her as a writer. Wallflower at the Orgy was a great change of pace for me and it was a well-chosen travel book. I read the first half waiting for and then on my train from Washington, DC to BWI and another chunk while eating a soft pretzel and waiting for my plane to board. I chipped away at the rest of it between outings with my family and showing Jeremy where I grew up. I read the last story — a fantastic profile on the filming of Catch 22 — while in line for Space Mountain at Disneyland with my two younger brothers talking about butts and my boyfriend making fun of the audio/video announcement about the speed and turbulance of the ride. But I remember more about where I read this book than the book itself. There were very few essays that stuck with me — though the one about Ephron’s Cosmo makeover with the ending she wanted to print in the magazine is well worth the read. Laura, do you have a second chance Ephron I should read? (Not I’m Sorry About My Neck.)

What do You think about Wallflower At The Orgy (2007)?

I was drawn to this book because I like Nora Ephron's witty, self-deprecating style and also because one of the articles deals at length with the "foodie" scene in the 1960s, (in which I'm very interested) but which seems a world away now and featured such luminaries as Julia Child, James Beard, Judith Jones and others. Renowned as a talented journalist and story teller, Nora Ephron has written much better stuff than this. As she herself admits in the introduction to the collection, written some years later, these articles are symptomatic of the younger, more self-obsessed, vain and somewhat shallow person she was at the time (and weren't we all at some time in our previous lives?). Somehow her trademark cynicism and wit fall flat in these articles, it's as though she's trying too hard. They are as most other people have noted, very dated, clearly because they are commentaries on a culture that has long since changed and evolved. For that reason, they may have had a good deal more impact and provided refreshing insights into the various worlds she describes at the time they were published, but they just haven't weathered well.
—Anne Green

The topics are a little out-of-date since this is a collection of Nora Ephron's work from the 1960's but it's entertaining to read about once-or-stillfamous people like Arthur Frommer (of the Europe on $5-a-day budget travel guides ...how outdated is that?; Cosmo Editor Helen Gurley Brown (who oddly, died about the same time as Nora); thethen-young director Mike Nichols (directing a haughty Orson Wells in "Catch-22") and the writing of Aryn Rand (which GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan may re-popularize, God help us). I was amused to learn that Nora read "The Fountainhead" the same way I did as an 18-year-old, skipping over Rand's creepy social/political tracts and focusing entirely on the fiery red-headed Howard Roark and his passionate affair with modern architecture and his client Dominique...)
—Betsy

I found myself slogging through this book at a snail's pace. Nora Ephron is a fine writer. She does say early on that she's a succinct writer, and then she goes to ramble on more than needed (IMHO) in her essays. The topics were dated. She had a whole essay on Rod McKuen. I have no idea who he is; he supposedly sang and wrote poetry back in the 1960s as far as I could tell based on the essay. Well, he either had a career that ended in the 1960s or early 1970s, or I live under a rock. It could be either really. Since she seemed to be an author of contemporary issues during her time, such as fashion, not many of these essays stood up through the course of time. Still, she's a very good writer. It's not her fault that I had little interest in the topics that she wrote about.
—Beth Gordon

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