If pregnancy were a book, they would cut the last two chapters.

Ephron’s line uses a wry literary metaphor to puncture sentimental narratives about pregnancy. By imagining pregnancy as a book whose “last two chapters” would be cut, she suggests that the final stretch—late pregnancy and/or the approach to labor—is often the most uncomfortable, exhausting, and least romanticized portion. The joke also critiques how cultural storytelling tends to edit women’s bodily experiences: the early “plot” (announcement, glow, anticipation) is celebrated, while the difficult, messy, physically taxing end is minimized or omitted. The humor works as both complaint and corrective, insisting that the full story—including the hard parts—deserves to be acknowledged.