Imaginary Friends: A Play with Music / By Nora Ephron; Music by Marvin Hamlisch; Lyrics by Craig Carnelia

By Nora Ephron

Book Overview

Although Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy probably only met once in their lives, their names will be linked forever in the history of American literary feuds: they were legendary enemies, especially after McCarthy famously announced to the world that every word Hellman wrote was a lie, including 'and' and 'the.' The public battle, and the legal squabbling, that ensued ended, unsatisfactorily for all, with Hellman's death. In Imaginary Friends, Nora Ephron brilliantly and hilariously resuscitates these two bigger-than-life women to give them a post-mortem second act, and the chance to really air their differences.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0573632650
• ISBN13: 9780573632655
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Samuel French
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Early Nora Ephron

i love anything written from Nora Ephron's point of view and this book provides some clues to how she got started. It is fun!

Better when seeing it...

You just don't get the feel of this extraordinary, unusual and unique play of Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman - two rival authors during the communist scare - from reading it. I was given the pleasure of seeing this incredible play starring Cherry Jones and Swoozie Kurts in its Broadway run. When the two authors meet in the afterlife, they tell their audience about their lives, beginning with their cleverly told childhoods and slowly moving forward to McCarthy's accusation of being a Communist and ending with Hellman's death before the trial was set by Hellman and McCarthy to discuss McCarthy's lies about Hellman's so-called memoirs. Still clever and still stunning, Ephron's play is an enjoyable read for McCarthy (THE GROUP) and Hellman (THE CHILDREN'S HOUR) fans.