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May 13, 2008 12:13 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Rachel Samstat

Heartburn, the novel in which Rachel Samstat appears, has been raved about here on Trashionista. I read it,tempted by the list of Top 10 chick lit precursors, but even though I enjoyed it I did wonder what all the fuss was about. Stuck for a heroine this week (I'm being honest!) I thought I'd use Rachel, not for me, but for the many fans of the book that read this site. Before I'm pelted with key lime pie though, I have to say, when I read it for the second time, I loved the book and thoroughly enjoyed Rachel's journey.

Cookery writer, presenter and mother of a small child, with another on it's way, Rachel is distraught and thoroughly angry when she reads an inscription from her husband's mistress to her husband in a children's book. Even worse, it's from Thelma a woman she knows socially. After confronting him, he tells her he is in love with Thelma and that he thinks Rachel is a "nag" and a "grouse" amongst other lovely words. So she goes to her father's apartment in New York with Sam her son, to think and cry.

We then follow her journey, watch her husband tell her to come home, until she finally regains her strength and makes a decision.

What I like about this novel is Rachel's ability to turn even the most painful of times into a comedy. As Vera, her shrink, says, "She makes jokes even when she's feeling terrible."  This book is often described as a "thinly disguised novel" and it is well known that Nora wrote this about her husband at the time, Carl Bernstein, and his affair with former British Prime Minister James Callaghan's daughter, Margaret Jay. Like Rachel (or as Rachel as they are one and the same) Nora has turned a painful time of her life into an honest funny book and subsequent film.

But why did Nora turn such a painful time into a story for the world to read? In Rachel's words,  she tells the story so she can "control the version," and "make you laugh." That way "it doesn't hurt as much," and then she "can get on with it." All thoroughly good reasons. Rachel does not come across at all bitter and doesn't even mention the word revenge. But, for Nora, it must feel sweet all the same.

More Helen's Heroines

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Posted by Helen Redfern on May 13, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink

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