The Most Spectacular Literary Divorces: Nora Ephron, Rachel Cusk, & More


When writers separate, the dissolution becomes material for some pretty explosive books. Jessica Ferri picks some of the best.



It is a truth universally acknowledged that most marriages in the United States will end in divorce. And when writers divorce, the dissolution of their marriage becomes material for their next book. Just this month, Rachel Cusk, the author of Arlington Park and a memoir on motherhood, A Life’s Work, has published an account of her divorce experience in Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation. Here are a few other examples of writers who have made literary gold out of saying, “I don’t.”

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Heartburn
By Nora Ephron


What would the genre of romantic comedy be without Nora Ephron? It would be stupidly sentimental. Ephron’s only novel, Heartburn, is a hilarious roman à clef of the dissolution of her marriage to her second husband, Carl Bernstein. Ephron’s alter ego, Rachel, discovers that her husband is having yet another affair, and this time he’s “in love.” Devastated and seven months pregnant, she flees Washington, D.C., for New York, where she’s mugged during a group-therapy session. You just can’t make this stuff up, unless of course, you’re Nora Ephron. RIP.

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