As a result, most people do not have nearly enough mashed potatoes in their lives, and when they do, it’s almost always at the wrong time.” Of course, you can always get someone to make the mashed potatoes for you, but let’s face it: the reason you’re blue is that there isn’t anyone to make them for you. The problem with mashed potatoes, though, is that they require almost as much hard work as crisp potatoes, and when you’re feeling blue the last thing you feel like is hard work. Nothing like getting into bed with a bowl of hot mashed potatoes already loaded with butter, and methodically adding a thin cold slice of butter to every forkful. “Nothing like mashed potatoes when you’re feeling blue. “Nora Ephron’s novel ‘Heartburn’ still scorches 40 years later.” The Washington Post.

It’s a monologue, a diatribe, a roman à clef deployed with heat-seeking barbs.” To some readers, “Heartburn” is barely a novel. References to The Post, including the Style section, are peppered throughout. “Heartburn” is a Washington novel and a Washington Post novel: It’s based on Ephron’s explosive breakup with legendary Post Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, who had an affair with the wife of the British ambassador when Ephron was many months pregnant with her and Bernstein’s second child.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron