Wallflower at the Orgy

by Nora Ephron

From her Academy Award—nominated screenplays to her bestselling fiction and essays, Nora Ephron is one of America’s most gifted, prolific, and versatile writers. In this classic collection of magazine articles, Ephron does what she does best: embrace American culture with love, cynicism, and unmatched wit. From tracking down the beginnings of the self-help movement to dressing down the fashion world’s most powerful publication to capturing a glimpse of a legendary movie in the making, these timeless pieces tap into our enduring obsessions with celebrity, food, romance, clothes, entertainment, and sex. Whether casting her ingenious eye on renowned director Mike Nichols, Cosmopolitan magazine founder Helen Gurley Brown—or herself, as she chronicles her own beauty makeover—Ephron deftly weaves her journalistic skill with the intimate style of an essayist and the incomparable talent of a great storyteller.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Humor, Audiobook, Memoir, Short Stories, Biography

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Nora Ephron was an American journalist, film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, and blogger.

She was best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes wrote with her sister, Delia Ephron.

Reviews

[Julie G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aw, damn it. I thought it was a story about an actual orgy.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanting a 'reading -palate - cleanse' ....from having recently read a delicious novel....."The Hearts Invisible Furies", by John Boyne- a long involved 600 page read.....
I reached for a thin book by the delightful and funny-(sadly deceased),
Nora Ephron. I've read other books by her including the the book I own - the 600 page
'Celebrating Nora' book called "The Most of Nora Ephron" which came out soon after she died....still 'the best' everything you want to read about Nora Ephron is really in 'that' book ... as it's years of her work. 40 years from her writings -from her journalism, feminism, and being a woman: - she was funny - kind - a great friend to her friends - and brilliant. I mean - come on: "When Harry Met Sally"?/!!!! :)
.....and she wrote the screen play for "Julie and Julia"....."Bewitched"...."You've Got Mail"..."Sleepless in Seattle"....
"Silkworm"... etc.

"Wallflower At The Orgy", is a collection of articles and essays that was written in the 60's. This small book was first published in 1970. So... it's dated. I enjoyed a few of the essays in it - others less so-- but I miss this woman - the gifts she offered the world....
The best thing about this book...'after' reading - and seeing much more developed work of hers - was her raw talent. It was always there - Her love for American culture
her cynicism, and unmatched wit!
.....her essays were about celebrity, food, clothes, ( dressing down: my kind of girl),
sex, self help, and entertainment.

Funny- tender - likable- fearless in her writing-
.... A sad day... the day Nora died! I miss her 'movies'!

*note: Carol inspired me recently when she read "I Feel Bad About My Neck" to 'tap' into Nora again.... I had this little book for years - unread. It's not a first choice... but it's still 'Nora'. Thanks Carol!

Nora was an icon... loved by many.....an unforgettable talent & woman!

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ohhh Nora! Her essays are fun, comforting and somewhat hilarious to read. Not exceedingly uplifting or educational, but I like that about her.. she writes about what she wants to write about.

It’s always like reading the well written diary of someone so incredibly opposite to me.

I love the piece on The Food Establishment and how bitchy and catty they are. It was interesting look into the folks who changed the game of food and cookbook writing.

I really loved the Interview with Mike Nichols. Pretty great stuff.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I can't say I was particularly interested in the articles' subjects, there's no denying the wit of the writing. Ephron's later work resonates with me more, but this was worth my time. If you like her, you'll enjoy dipping in and out of this collection.

[Carla Stafford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Nora Ephron.

In spite of the comical title, Wallflower at the Orgy is not the least bit funny. I SHOULD have stopped reading-but, well...I am not a quitter... What Wallflower at the Orgy IS-is a collection of articles Nora Ephron wrote for Glamour magazine...in the sixties and seventies. It isn't that they are poorly written...but half the time I had no idea who she was writing about. I imagine that when these articles were originally collected and reprinted as a volume that they were exceedingly more relevant to the audience at that time.

Not something I would recommend...to anyone-who doesn't remember adoringly the pop culture of the sixties and seventies in vivid detail.

To be fair though, ever picked up an even three year old fashion magazine? Outside of appreciating the layout of the fashion photography, its contents have most likely been completely fossilized in layers of irrelevance...

These articles by Nora Ephron (some of them) are fifty years old...fifty!!!

My lack of literary selectiveness should in no way be taken as an insult to Ms. Ephron's skill set.;)

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about 1960's artists like Mike Nichols and Ann Rand, Cosmo founder Helen Gurley Brown and Claiborne and Beard, when Nora Ephron was a journalist. I particularly liked the article "Diary of a Beach Wife" about when the wifes leave NY for the summer, and the article about Arthur Frommer.

[Moira · Rating 2 out of 5]

More mannered and dated than Crazy Salad, for me her standout nonfiction collection (I've heard Scribble Scribble highly praised, but it's been out of print for decades, used copies are really expensive, and the recent Kindle "omnibus" is incomplete). Altho the book is supposedly at least somewhat in defense of kitsch, there's no philosophical framework other than "I like fashion and fripperies," which is fine, but kind of shallow given Ephron's other, amazing essays on the Pillsbury Bake-Off and FDS. Women seem to get it in the neck in these pieces -- Ayn Rand, Jacqueline Susann, Helen Gurley Brown, the "beach wives," the Ladies who Lunch....or maybe I was just put off by the extreme fawning over Mike Nichols in not one but two long pieces, a pointless diffuse interview and a report on the filming of Catch-22 (Nichols, at that point basically the Sammy Glick of young male 1960s film directors, expresses a desire to fail big so he'll stop getting flak for being overpraised. Be careful what you wish for, buddy). The usual complaint about books like these is how "dated" they are -- it's nearly impossible to imagine most modern readers connecting with the piece on Women's Wear Daily (a daily newspaper?), even tho arguably it was the archetype for today's giant internet gossip sites.

In fine: read Crazy Salad instead, which is much better on kitsch, and has historical, not topical, pieces on feminism and women and trashy books, and is much much funnier to boot.

[ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is at its best when Ephron is doing media critique and the two pieces with/on Mike Nichols at the end are the very best of the best, both because of her writing and because of his insight--it's really a very charming interview between them--and it's easy to see how this kind of writing eventually led her to be the movie-maker we love. It was also, as always, fascinating to see how much social mores and language have changed and, in some ways, how we've lost ground and gone backward--or at least how clearly you can see the framework of a better world coming that we know now is still coming at a much slower pace than it seemed.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wallflower at the Orgy was given the title because Nora Ephron said that she is always standing on the side taking notes while others are having fun.

This book is basically a compilation of magazine articles from 1968, 69, 70 about popular culture at the time.

Nora Ephron is widely known for the screenplays of Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and When Harry Met Sally. I was hoping that this book would be more about Nora. But it's not really. Although you get glimpses into who she was.

My favorite part was actually the funny into she gave to every chapter. I wish that this had been more of the book.

I think that this book was probably more relevant in the 70s and 80s.

My favorite chapters were: the make over article, the Jacqueline Susann/Valley of the Dolls author, the Arthur Frommer travel book, the Mike Nichols chapter.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometime last year, I read Nora Ephron's fantastic book Crazy Salad, which was a collection of columns she had written in the 1970s for various magazines. I loved that book and her writing. Even though the essays were dated, I enjoyed her wit and writing style. After all, Ms. Ephron is the genius behind When Harry Met Sally. After finishing Crazy Salad, I went on to read Scribble Scribble (collections of her columns about the media), I Feel Bad About My Neck (more recent book; focusing primarily on aging) and then this one, which is a collection of various magazine articles she wrote mostly in the late 1960s. Again, her good writing transcends the dated material. Funny is funny even if she is writing about the making of a movie in 1968. These collections of essays focus primarily on her journalistic stories (hence the title ... the journalist is always a wallflower at an orgy and not a participant). Although this is a fast easy read and a must for Ephron fans, I would recommend Crazy Salad over this one.

[Fozz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reminder that Nora is one of the most versatile writers that has ever lived, and that time is both a circle and very, very long line.

I absolutely loved the first half, but found the curation of the second disappointing in comparison. Hence why I can’t give Nora all the stars she deserves.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nora Ephron's first collection of columns, while not quite rising to the level of her brilliant Scribble, Scribble: Notes on the Media or I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, proves greatly entertaining. Her articles, all originally published in magazines in 1968 or 1969, are all interesting, particularly the looks at Women's Wear Daily when it was still the bitchy record of the Ladies Who Lunch, before it atrophied into WWD, at the bloviating Ayn Rand, and at the rise of men's fashion with Bill Blass. In the case of "The Man in the Bill Blass Suit," that article gives the modern reader a disorienting view of a time when it was considered daring to hint that a magazine subject was gay.

It saddens me to think that Ephron, who died last year, will never pen another astute and amusing observation on life, the media or popular culture.

Unlike Ephron's Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women, Wallflower at the Orgy has mostly aged pretty well -- although it's hard to imagine a time when Jacqueline Susann's breathy fiction was considered all that. Who could read dreck like that nowadays?

Oh, wait a minute! There's that schlocky Fifty Shades of Grey woman! Maybe times haven't changed all that much after all!

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

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...)

[Kira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose in part because of the author’s recent death, I find it difficult to say anything bad about Wallflower at the Orgy, which was a short and predictable collection of classic Ephron ruminations—on fashion, on people, on New York, etc. But even my main critique—that the book is a little too referential to withstand the test of time—turned out to be only partially true.

Helen Gurley Brown, legendary editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and the subject of one of the essays in Wallflower, passed away this month. Frommer’s, the travel guide company Ephron profiles in its 1970 heyday, was bought by Google a few weeks ago. And an essay on The Love Machine, a 1960s novel about the sadistic sexual escapades of a TV executive, is described by Ephron as poorly written but wildly popular due to its capitalizing on women’s secret desire for sexual domination. Ahem, Fifty Shades.

[Gala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introducción: i love nora ephron con todo mi corazón. Voy a leer todo lo que haya pasado por su mente con gusto y admiración. Es mi Midas

Pero a veces… no tanto.
Walflower at the Orgy es un compendio de artículos que escribió en los 60-70.
No me ha dejado de gustar, pero con esto de los compendios y las cajas misteriosas, a veces no clickas con algunas piezas que te han tocado en el lote.

Siempre escribe de lux, pero honestamente, hay tardes que no me entra un texto de 40 minutos sobre cómo se rodó una película de Mike Nichols que no he visto ni tengo en mente ver. ¡Pero eso, solo algunas! Hay también ensayos deliciosos, de hecho son los que más quiero destacar, focus on the positive: como la pieza sobre Ayn Rand, el ensayo sobre el boom de la autoayuda y el de la industria de las revistas de moda. Delisiosnes.
Total que simplemente hay que empezar a leérselo y si algo no te interesa lo pasas, la vida es corta.

[Sriya · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's partly testament to the strength of nora ephron's voice that these essays, about people and trends that mostly vanished into obscurity in the 50 years since many of these essays were published (and admittedly as a british person i wouldn't have heard of a lot of them anyway) but also what she has to say is genuinely relevant to so much of today – i particularly enjoyed her essays about the personal essay industrial complex and about commercial literature. the profiles were great too and so catty at times which did feel refreshingly different to now, whatever was in the water in the 70s it was not fear. listened to the audiobook and i'm very glad i did because the narrator did an excellent job of translating nora's voice – it was like listening to the parts of you've got mail where meg ryan and tom hanks narrate their emails (my fave)

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read. Ephron, of course, has a fantastic writing style, but mostly what I loved was he glimpse into magazines of the late 60s and early 70s. I was particularly amused by the article about Erich Segal, the author of Love Story, which was a huge bestseller (and movie!), but today is barely a blip on the pop culture radar. In the article, Segal talks about how he's comparable to some of the great authors and his lasting legacy. I'm only aware of Love Story because, for some reason, MAD parodied it in the late 80s or early 90s. Also fascinating was the story about Arthur Frommer. I know of the Frommer guides, of course, but didn't realize how they started out (as "See X on $5/day" guides). And Ephron was particularly prescient in the article about the food establishment; it was odd to read about James Beard as a person, not just an award.

Not all the articles were as interesting; the one about prophets didn't grab me, and neither did the Mike Nichols interview. Still, worth reading for the fabulous voice and glimpse into life 50 years ago.

[Katie Gainey-West · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Nora Ephron! I can’t get enough of her. This book wasn’t my favorite of all of her contributions but it did make me laugh out loud more than once. It’s a good, quick read and I also learned a thing or two. I also think the title is an incredibly clever way to view journalism.

[Python]

mandatory reading for future New York young women I hear.

Library just called to say my ass needs to replace the copy I spilled coffee all over as it is no longer fit for circulation.

Anyways, thoroughly enjoyed, I love how bitchy (complimentary) she is

[~Geektastic~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Nora Ephron and the pieces collected here are a great introduction to her style. But it is WAY too short to be any kind of meaningful collection.

[Marlee Waldman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite but still love my queen

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nora Ephron could never write a bad word.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

was hoping for some gossipy essays. i guess that’s what i got, but the subjects don’t mean much to me

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had its moments ..rather dated which is to be expected. ..but some chuckles to be had. NE definitely wrote with zest.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably more of a 3.5 but i'm rounding up. i believe almost all of these essays are from the 1970s which is simultaneously the best and worst thing about them. on one hand, there's obviously a few bits here and there that are dated and out of touch, but that's probably an unfair criticism because how could she write for the sensibilities of someone reading half a century from then? still, i imagine even for the time she had a few hot takes in her pocket.

on the other hand, it's a fascinating eye into the world of new york 50 years ago, with a rich list of characters i knew almost nothing about before reading this. ephron is quick and sharp and lets you know exactly how she feels about everything without making too much of a meal of it. she's funny and as relatable as someone so different to myself can be. she lets you step into the world she lives in like a tourist who will probably never visit again.

i'm looking forward to reading crazy salad and scribble scribble because people seem to say this collection is good, but that one's better

[Beth Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Barb]

This is a collection of Ephron's writings from the late 60s. Unfortunately, I just can't relate to these articles the way I could to her memoirs, which I really enjoyed. I think readers who remember this period in time will be able to appreciate what she had to say about contemporary things while they were happening. Having just been born in the late 60s I didn't care so much about men's fashion and Erich Segal's 'Love Story' and felt the whole collection lacked what, grew to be, her signature sharp wit.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's the thing: Nora Ephron is a fun writer to read. That said, this is a collection of essays from the late 1960s and 1970s. About random then-famous people like Bill Blass. So, it was interesting in a historical pop culture kind of way, and gave me a better impression of what it was like to live in the decade leading up to my appearance on this earth. But it was not information I would generally seek out.

[The Lazy Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a Nora Ephron devotee so, of course, this would hit for me (especially on audiobook). She introduced the collection saying how most of the essays were columns in the NY Post she wrote between 1968-1969 and she describes how her writing style was shaped by the limitations of her column and publication. For example, since space was finite, she had to be economical with her words and not so "Tom Wolfe" (i.e. New Journalism), which she thought in retrospect, made her words more punchy. And I agree! Also, she describes that writing for a publication with less prestige meant that she had to work harder to make a profile, often interviewing 30-40 people who knew the subject before getting to them, which makes her writing keenly observant. Finally, within these confines, she chose what interested her. She loved fashion, cooking, and gossip columns. She (as a well informed citizen of the time) of course felt the political impacts of the late 60's (war in Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, second wave feminism) yet by writing what she knew, her work feels way more accessible, modern, and less pedantic than some of her contemporaries. Not to compare and contrast the two, but I'm working my way through Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Didion and while not entirely the same subject matter, they wrote around the same time and I'm really struggling with Didion's journalism! I feel like she gets a bit preachy and judgy in the name of "exposé" (especially around the counterculture movements), and Ephron is able to maintain a sense of practical distance from her subjects. I mean, she found a way to criticize her own boss while simultaneously praising what Gurley Brown achieved for women reading Cosmo. There's an essay in here called "Revisiting The Fountainhead" and you KNOW Ephron's politics when she says Rand's books have a temporary place on her shelf. So my hot take is: this is a better collection of journalism than Didion's (there I said it!). I just think Ephron's wit and self deprecation leaves history to remember her as a bit unserious? But this is a woman who would have been a breaking news reporter at Newsweek (if not for the sexual discrimination), formed a lifelong friendship with Mike Nichols (one of the formative directors of the late 60's to early 80's), and was tangentially involved in breaking the Watergate scandal (if not only for punching up the script of All the President's Men, decoding the identity of Deep Throat, and telling anyone who asked for decades after her divorce). She's no dummy! Basically, I feel she should be remembered just as well as Didion for capturing 60's culture, and shouldn't have her writing underestimated just because she's a humorist.

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars. Audiobook reader ok.
I picked up the cd because I wanted something short and non-fiction to listen too.Even though I clearly remember the 70's (well mostly except when I was high which I admit was a lot) this book seemed a bit dated because the worlds and people Ephron writes about were so far from mine at the time. So it was a bit of a time capsule for things I missed.
The essays include many things I and friends would have disparaged as being part of the "straight" world as applied to point of view rather than gender preferences. Our own readings were more among the beats and renegades.
It was kind of interesting to read about people and subjects so many years later and see where they are in relevance today.
For example, the essay on Women's Wear Daily and its power-which we mocked, and I still find the obsession with fashion and haute couture by people who can't afford it or would look stupid in the outfits inexplicable. Our fashion idiocies were more along the lines of the romantic Victorian hippie (always have hated tie dye).

As to her husband's desire that inspired the opening line “Some years ago, the man I am married to told me he had always had a mad desire to go to an orgy.” LOL, that may still be the one of the most common fantasies to this day.