Heartburn is a short humorous novel about an unfunny topic — a marriage falling apart. It is based on true events — Ephron’s marriage to Carl Bernstein and his infidelity. The main character and narrator is Rachel Samstat, a cookbook author and TV personality married to Mark Feldman, a prominent syndicated journalist. Both Rachel and Mark are on their second marriages, and Rachel is pregnant with their second child when she discovers Mark’s infidelity. This novel is about her reaction to that discovery and the impact it has on her.
On the face of it, Rachel’s life might not be one that many readers could identify with. She is semi-famous, a New York native and now connected to movers and shakers in DC, which she hates. Mark and Rachel have been married for several years; they have renovated houses together, have a 2-year-old son, and are good friends with other DC couples involved in government and journalism. They have an active social life and are tuned into the DC gossip. One socialite, Thelma Rice, is notorious for her affairs even though she is married. Her husband is aware of her infidelities and seems resigned to them. The hot gossip says she has a new lover and Rachel’s friends are keen to figure out who it is. Rachel discovers that it’s Mark when she finds a book with a message for Mark from Thelma in it.
From here, Rachel takes the reader into her past. One of her best friends from childhood betrayed her with her first husband. Her father has had a series of affairs/marriages. And Rachel, who attends group therapy regularly, was sure that she would never marry again after that first disappointment. She has seen nothing but disastrous marriages amongst friends and family. The only person she knows who seems to have a working marriage is her therapist. But then she meets Mark, who is very handsome and smart, and who is known to have dated widely. He pursued her relentlessly, and Rachel felt that they had a good marriage until she discovered that he was cheating. The revelation hits her like a ton of bricks. Ephron’s descriptions of that feeling, the grief and anger, are very real. You can tell she is writing from personal experience and it is this experience that I think resonates with readers. It doesn’t matter what your background is, if you have experienced that betrayal, you know where Rachel is coming from, and I think that is what makes the novel such a compelling read. I want to know how Rachel is going to deal with this untenable situation and how she is going to manage the terrible pain of it all.
What Rachel does is write about it. The novel is told from Rachel’s point of view, and she is talking directly to the reader about her marriage. At one point in the story, Rachel’s therapist Vera asks her, “Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story?” And Rachel answers,
Because if I tell the story, I control the version.
Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh and I would rather have you laugh at me than feel sorry for me.
Because if I tell the story, it doesn’t hurt so much.
Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.
And Rachel does get on with it, as I imagine Nora Ephron did when Carl Bernstein cheated on her. From what I’ve read, the publication of this book scandalized folks in DC, and Bernstein was especially bothered by it. Good. If this is Ephron’s “revenge novel,” then mission accomplished and good for her. Heartburn was made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, which I haven’t seen, but I love that Ephron got a successful film as well as a book out of her pain and that she went on to a successful Hollywood career.
