Heartburn

Heartburn (1983) is a roman à clef by American writer, director, and journalist Nora Ephron. The novel is a thinly fictionalized account of the tumultuous end of Ephron’s marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, whose affair while Ephron was pregnant became a subject of public gossip. The story follows Rachel Samstat, a pregnant cookbook author who leaves her husband after discovering his infidelity and uses her sharp wit and culinary knowledge to navigate the painful aftermath. The novel explores themes of The Impact of Betrayal on Memory and Identity, Turning Pain into Narrative, and The Entanglement of Love and Power.

Ephron was a celebrated essayist and received three Academy Award nominations for screenplays such as When Harry Met Sally… and Sleepless in Seattle. Written in the context of second-wave feminism and shifting marital norms of the 1980s, Heartburn examines the tension between female independence and the persistent emotional weight of traditional relationships. Ephron adapted the novel into a screenplay for the 1986 film of the same name.

This guide refers to the 1996 Vintage Contemporaries paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide contain depictions of religious discrimination, gender discrimination, illness, mental illness, emotional abuse, graphic violence, animal death, substance use, addiction, and death.

Plot Summary

Rachel Samstat, a 38-year-old cookbook author, is seven months pregnant when she discovers that her second husband, Mark Feldman, is having an affair. She finds a loving inscription in a children’s songbook given to Mark by an acquaintance named Thelma Rice. When Rachel confronts her husband, he confesses his love for Thelma but expects Rachel to stay with him. Within hours, Rachel takes their two-year-old son, Sam, and flies from their home in Washington, DC, to her father’s empty apartment in New York City. Her father, an actor, has recently been committed to a psychiatric hospital. Rachel recalls the clues she missed, such as Mark’s frequent trips to the dentist the previous summer.

While flying to New York, Rachel reflects on her career as a food writer with a public television show. She shares anecdotes about her deceased mother, Bebe Samstat, a flamboyant Hollywood agent who died of cirrhosis due to an alcohol addiction. In New York, Rachel calls her therapist, Vera Maxwell, whose blunt questions solidify Rachel’s decision to leave Mark. Soon after, Thelma’s husband, Jonathan Rice, an undersecretary of state, arrives at the apartment. He reveals the full extent of the affair, explaining that Mark and Thelma attend therapy together and have been shopping for a convertible couch for their “love nest.” Jonathan begs Rachel to return to Washington, but she refuses. Her father returns home from the hospital, comforts Rachel, dismisses Jonathan, and arranges for a housekeeper to care for Sam before leaving to see his mistress.

Feeling desolate, Rachel attends a session of her old therapy group. On the subway ride there, she feels uneasy when a man in a plaid shirt winks at her, and she hides a diamond ring from Mark in her bra. In the group session, Rachel recounts her marital crisis. The session is violently interrupted when the man from the subway, his face now covered by a nylon stocking, bursts in with a gun. He holds Rachel hostage, pressing the gun to her temple, and robs the group. He specifically motions for the ring, having seen her hide it, and she surrenders it. He takes Rachel down in the elevator before releasing her unharmed. The group is taken to the police station, where Rachel provides a detailed description of the robber to Detective Andrew Nolan.

Rachel returns to her father’s apartment to find Mark waiting. He begins to cry, claiming he is in “a lot of pain” (87). Though Rachel recognizes his tears as self-centered, she finds herself unable to resist the emotional display and agrees to return to Washington on the condition that he stops seeing Thelma. The flight home is tense, and Sam throws up on Mark’s new blazer, which Rachel intuits he bought with Thelma. Back in Washington, Rachel reflects on her close friendship with another couple, Arthur and Julie Siegel. She recalls how Mark once passionately advocated for marriage when Arthur had an affair. Rachel visits the Siegels, and Julie advises her to “wait the thing out” (115). 

A few days later, Rachel goes to New York for a cooking demonstration and meets with her television producer, Richard. He reveals that his wife, Helen, has just left him for a woman. Bonding over their shared misery, Richard makes a grand, public marriage proposal to Rachel before jumping into the seal pond at the Central Park Zoo, where he is promptly arrested. He tells her she needs to make her own “wild and permanent gesture of size” (148).

When Rachel returns home, two police officers return her stolen diamond ring. To stop her friend Betty from spreading a false rumor that Thelma is having an affair with Arthur, Rachel invents a story that Thelma has a “horrible infection.” The story backfires when Betty tells Thelma, leading to a furious confrontation with Mark. He storms out, leaving his office unlocked. Rachel goes inside and finds phone bills and credit card receipts that confirm the affair’s timeline and expense. She also discovers a newspaper in which Mark has circled real estate listings for houses, confirming he and Thelma are planning a future together. 

Distraught, Rachel drives to Thelma’s house and sees Mark’s car parked outside. The stress and a fall cause Rachel to go into premature labor. Mark drives her to the hospital, where she gives birth to their second son, Nathaniel, via an emergency Cesarean section. The baby is premature and must remain in the hospital for weeks. During Rachel’s hospital stay, Mark continues to see Thelma. After being discharged, Rachel takes her diamond ring to a jeweler, Leo Rothman, to be repaired. Leo accidentally reveals that Mark recently purchased an expensive necklace. When Rachel speculates that Mark spent his savings on it, Leo cryptically confirms that Mark spent his savings “[f]or the down payment” (170), solidifying for Rachel the seriousness of his plans with Thelma. On the spot, Rachel sells the diamond ring back to Leo for $15,000.

That evening, Rachel and Mark attend a dinner party at their friend Betty’s house. The conversation turns to Richard and Helen’s separation, and Betty wonders aloud how a person could be married to someone and not know something fundamental about them. The question serves as a catalyst for Rachel. She realizes that Mark does not love her and that the marriage is truly over. She picks up the Key lime pie she made for dessert and throws it in Mark’s face. In the final pages, Rachel reflects on her need to turn pain into a story to control it. 

On her last day in Washington, Rachel prepares an elaborate meal and teaches Mark the recipe for her special vinaigrette. That night, lying in bed next to him, she realizes she can no longer remember the words to a song he used to sing to her when she was pregnant with Sam. The novel ends with her preparing to take Sam and the newborn Nathaniel on a train back to New York to start a new life.