Postcards From the Edge

Rating:
Summary: Funny and emotionally charging.
Review: Ever had issues with your mother, your looks, your career, your self-esteem, your depression? Ever just thought you hit rock bottom, but pulled yourself out of it? Carrie Fisher takes readers on an unbelievable ride where she writes her main character as a very somber, yet sarcastic hero in a world full of drug users and Hollywood actors. The two often become the same thing.

The text is full of a number of very, very witty one liners, but reaches a great subtext about human bravery in a time when people give other people very little credit for just getting out of bed each day.

This is Fisher's finest book so far.

You will laugh. Trust me.

Rating:
Summary: Fine First Novel From Fisher
Review: I try to reread this book at least once a year; there are parts I have memorized.

The best chapters of the book the are Suzanne and Alex's dual (dueling?) diaries from rehab. But as I get older, the other sections mean more to me than they once did. (If Fisher ever wants to do a movie that runs closer to the book, may I point out that the movie version in my mind starred Michael J. Fox as Alex?)

Speaking of the movie, it's true that they are quite different from each other, but just as clearly the same story. It's as if it has been told at different meetings, at different times, the same people with changing insights....

You owe yourself this book, especially if you've ever sat in a church basement with a styrofoam cup of bad coffee in one hand.

Rating:
Summary: Humorous, swinging, all you could wish for!!
Review: Just a quick note to remark how much I loved this book! Carrie Fisher beautifully brings us the inside of Hollywood through a web of humor, drugs, relationships, 'Hollywood Party Terror', and much more.

The plot centers on a 30-year-old actress named Susan Vale, and follows her challenges as she overcomes her drug addiction, gets back into the swing of things, and finally falls in love- although her 'unstable' being forbids her from admitting it.

I absolutely adored 'Postcards'! A must-read!

*long live Carrie Fisher*

Rating:
Summary: A unique voice
Review: Many people, myself among them, were initially turned off by Carrie Fisher's Postcards from the Edge. Oh no, here comes another Hollywood star who thinks she can run the gamut of the arts. Even though the book was a bestseller when it was released, I couldn't change my initial (and, admittedly) biased opinion--50 million Elvis fans can be wrong. Even when Surrender the Pink, Fisher's second novel, appeared and garnered acclaim, I wasn't satisfied. But then Postcards from the Edge was made into a film with Meryl Streep, and, needing a film to see, I went. And what transpired on the screen (from a screenplay by Fisher) was enough to break through my bias.

Postcards from the Edge is quite different from the movie, however. The movie has a linear story that is quite clearly autobiographical for Fisher--Suzanne Vail is a young star undergoes a stomach pump, then drug rehabilitation, and it all is the result of early fame, and a famous mother that the star has yet to really come to terms with. The book, although similar in parts, has a "postcard" feel. The early section is told through the diary entries of Suzanne and Alex, an addicted young screenwriter. Later sections, told only through the point of view of Suzanne, range from entirely dialogue through more traditional third person narrative.

Fisher understands the process of addiction, that searching for escape, then denial, then endless justification. Her portrayal of drug addiction goes beyond drugs--I've never taken any, but I could see the patterns of addiction in terms of my many vices. She also understands the glad-handing movie culture enough to be able to depict it as glamorous, while also showing the pimples underneath. Bret Easton Ellis has nothing on her one scene of Suzanne going shopping: the brand names, the non-sequiturs, the endless vagaries are all things he would have died to write.

Carrie Fisher has a way with words. She's not the next Dorothy Parker, but there is a fine example of wit in Postcards from the Edge. It's a wit measured by the 80s, by her experience, and by her personality. Ellis can't match it, because he hasn't lived her life. And that's what makes Postcards from the Edge special: it is a book that was written by the only person who could write it. That is, it is unique. And, frankly, that's more than can be said for many books published these days.

Rating:
Summary: Not in the Hollywood scene BUT...
Review: Taylor Weston, A reviewer

I could swear that other than the glitz and glamour this book was written from personal experiences i have had. Ms Fisher shines through in this wonderfully written, poignant account at life. A remarkable Actress...even better writer.
I also recommend Nightmares Echo and Bastard Out Of Carolina because of the style of writing