Both writers and journalists became feminist references dealing with issues related to women with great intelligence, irony and humor.
In 2015, the figure of Nora Ephron he again captured the attention of the public beyond his loyal fan club. With the premiere of the documentary about him everything is copydirected by his son Jacob Bernstein, many journalists took advantage of the reviews of the tape to bring its protagonist to the present after years of discontinued titles. The editorial Asteroid Books he had the good eye to publish his book of essays I do not remember anything in June 2022. The commotion in bookstores was such that Anagrama did not take long to recover the titles crazy salad and the cake is over, which had been in his catalog in the 70s but until now could only be purchased second-hand. The icing on the cake has just been put, once again, by the cosmic editorial with I don’t like my neckanother anthology of articles received with applause.
That the firms that have made an effort to recover the figure of Ephron in the media are female is no coincidence. Throughout her career, the American treated women’s issues with such irony, intelligence and style that became a feminist beacon guide for many women. Those adjectives that define her can also be applied to another almost forgotten writer who deserves the same interest as her: Carmen Rico-Godoy. She developed her career during the same period but in the Spanish media, publishers and film sets and, while she was active, she was one of the most admired authors in the country. It is the Spanish Nora Ephron (or vice versa).
“I have a memory of great affection for Carmen and one day I suppose we will hear from her again. Life happens, we all disappear and then some come back. I think that she is a character to be revalued for her irony, her humor and the bad temper that she had, I loved her & rdquor ;, says the writer and journalist Maruja Torres, who was a co-worker and friend of hers for many years. She “She was a woman of strong character, with a great deal of tenderness and camaraderie, with a lot of personality. She was very intelligent, the daughter of Josefina Carabias & rdquor ;, says Torres.
Dedicating himself to the same profession as his mother after trying other trades is just one of the many points in common that the biography of Rico-Godoy has with that of Nora Ephron. They both studied Political Science, had sisters who also excelled in their respective careers, were married several times, were journalists, columnists and screenwriters, moved in the circles of power, used their lives as inspiration (each in their own way) and became they walked in much the same way. AND both made humor their flag. “Beyond circumstantial similarities, what makes me think of Rico-Godoy as the Nora Ephron of here is grace, speed and using oneself and the small daily misfortunes as a matter of work that, when narrating them oneself, becomes become comedy& rdquor ;, maintains the writer Aloma Rodríguez.
“Both share that passion for turning the cliché around with humor, the cliché being the idiosyncrasy of the woman of the society in which they live,” says Andrea Toribio, co-responsible for the literary podcast the friend is you along with Rodriguez. “It is very difficult to make humor or get the most out of something that is already, from the outset, funny for a sector of the population, the male, when from the side of women it could be a reason for shame or ridicule& rdquor ;.
Parallel lives
Carmen Rico-Godoy was born in Paris in 1939. Her mother had fled Spain because of the Civil War and her father José Rico Godoy was in prison. When she left in 1944, the family reunited in Madrid and a decade later, Carabias became the first Spanish correspondent in the United States and they moved. During that time and until they returned to Paris in 1967, also motivated by the work of her mother, Rico-Godoy graduated in Political Science from Georgetown University (Washington). In France she continued her studies and specialized in International Relations, began to practice journalism and met her first husband José Luis Garsino, an Argentine with whom she had her only child and with whom she was married only a few years. During that brief space of time they lived in Argentina, but in 1970 she settled permanently in Spain, now without that husband.
Nora Ephron was born in New York in 1941, the daughter of successful Hollywood screenwriter parents. Determined to be the Dorothy Parker of her generation, she began writing early and graduated with a degree in Political Science in 1962 from Wesley College in Massachusetts. In 1967, she married Dan Greenburg, her first husband, from whom she separated nine years later. Ephron’s sentimental life was vox populi while the name of the Spanish woman’s first husband, for example, barely appears in her biographical profiles. Both took their reality to shape her works, but Rico-Godoy was more discreet.
“She was known for her work, rather than personally. I want to say that she was not media in the current sense & rdquor ;, comments Nativel Preciado, journalist, writer and close friend of Carmen Rico-Godoy. “She appeared a lot in the written press, on the radio, but not on television. You had to know her to appreciate her personality. From the outset, she seemed more distant & rdquor ;, she maintains. She, who treated her very closely, explains that she had “a peculiar sense of humor. She was very self-critical, perfectionist, witty, quick-witted and affectionate & rdquor ;.
Although in one interview awarded in 2001 to the daily abc, Carmen Rico-Gody expressed “I never had a vocation for journalism, or for anything, just curiosity & rdquor ;, she practiced her profession with fervor. In 1971, she was part of the founding team of change 16flagship magazine of the Transition, where he cultivated his excellence as a political chronicler (years later they met in the anthology Under the Moncloa ficus) who also practiced in other media. “During the season that I was in change 16, she helped me a lot because the guys, as usual, feared her and told me ‘Be careful with Carmen!’. Guys don’t know that women like women, especially the intelligent ones,” recalls Maruja Torres. They already knew each other before, because Rico-Godoy was related in the world of cinema and the Barcelona journalist had worked in frames. “I met her in the summers in Mallorca when she went to do chronicles there and she was always very elegant & rdquor ;, she comments.
Nora Ephron was a reporter for five years at the New York Post, where he wrote about politics and any subject that touched him. Later, she had a column in Esquire, where he talked about issues feminine. One of his deliveries titled Some observations about breasts (collected in crazy salad) definitively launched her to journalistic stardom, although there were still a few years to go before her marriage to Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters on the Watergate case. That union was decisive for her career, because her husband’s infidelity when she was pregnant with her second child led her to write the novel the cake is over (1983), which gave her career a wild boost and made her famous.
The book was adapted to the big screen with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson as protagonists and a script by herself. The same thing happened with the first novel by Carmen Rico-Godoy. Being a woman and not dying trying in 1990. It was a real bombshell and its mythical paperback edition included in the collection the parrot de Temas de hoy, with the cover illustrated by José Manuel García López, is still on the shelves of many Spanish houses, already a bit dilapidated after so many readings. Nativel Preciado comments that the author: “She was surprised by her first literary success, she was overwhelmed by the popularity of her work & rdquor ;.
His book was also made into a movie under the direction of Ana Belén and his script, with Carmen Maura and Antonio Resines as protagonists. The name of her second husband Andrés Vicente Gómez Montero, a member of LolaFilms, appears in the production. It was the author’s first work to be turned into a film, followed by adaptations of How to be unhappy and enjoy it (1994) and Paradise is not what it used to be (2000). In addition, he also worked with Fernando Colomo and in the adaptation of The pazos of Ulloa for RTVE. For his part, Ephron followed his parents’ career and wrote screenplays for many films – sometimes alongside his sister Delia – some of which he also directed as You have an email (1998) or haunted (2000). In addition, she signed plays for Broadway and Off-Broadway.
In 2006, Ephron was diagnosed with leukemia, which she kept secret until she passed away six years later, although in 2010 she published a goodbye list entitled things i will miss, which begins with “my children & rdquor; and ends with “the cakes & rdquor; (it is collected in I do not remember anything). He passed away in 2012, at the age of 71.
As for Carmen Rico-Godoy, Maruja Torres says that: “she left with elegance too. She called me for lunch for the last time, because she had terrible cancer. She was very skinny and actually it was just me who ate. We were both making it clear that this was not a farewell but knowing that it was.” In addition to saying goodbye to her loved ones, said goodbye to his readers with the novel end of party. She was only 62 years old and had separated from her husband shortly before, as if following the famous advice of her American equivalent: “never marry a man you wouldn’t want to divorce & rdquor ;. In a hypothetical afterlife, they could be friends.