Postcards from the Edge

Carrie Fisher’s (yes, Princess Leia) first novel is a mishmash of styles that ultimately disappoints. The main character, an actress named Suzanne, is drifting through her Hollywood world, asking unimportant questions about relationships, drugs and life. Try all you like, but it’s hard to get

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attached to someone who is so unattached to her own existence.

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Oy. Just because you can write a book doesn't mean you should. And Carrie Fisher needs to go back to being Princess Leia. I made it through the first 80 pages saying "it has to get better" and then I gave up. Pulled a grandma and read the end--it didn't make me want to go back and see what I

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missed.

I guess I was spoiled by Rachel's Holiday, where the story was more fleshed out and you actually got to know the characters. Eep. I don't think I've ever given a book a "1" before.

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Read this book when it first came out. I loved Carrie's wit.
And most of this feels so true!!

Brilliantly funny and revealing what drugs do to a person.

Brilliantly funny and revealing what drugs do to a person.

This novel definitely clarified just how shallow Hollywood really is. I understand this is semi-autobiographical. What a life, if that's the case. I did like some of the writing, but some of it got tedious, like Alex's long rants. I just skimmed through parts of that. There was a lack of clarity in

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several places that left me wondering. At first I did not think of Suzanne as shallow, but by the end of the book, I did. At least I can say that I've read the book now.

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Well I gave this book a hundred pages to get me interested and it's just not doing anything for me. I like the format of the book with the alternating POVs, but I just can't stand the characters / nonexistent plot. I love Meryl Streep so I will probably check out the movie, but I just can't keep

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trudging through this book.

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The only slightly entertaining parts of this book were the ramblings of the drug addict in the beginning. Admittedly, I did not finish this book, so perhaps the ending is better; however, I found the main character's narcissism and whining too grating to continue reading. The plot, if you could say

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there was one, was extremely boring- I could not stay engaged for more than a few pages at a time.

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Man, I miss Carrie. This was a quick jaunt, but it was so relatable, even from someone who is not an addict or in the movie world. The scene at the party where she says she was waiting for the party-class bell to ring really resonated with me. :D

With her recent passing, I thought it was finally (well, past) time to read Carrie Fisher's books. So, I decided to start at the beginning with Postcards from the Edge, a novel about an actress who finds herself in rehab and recovering from a serious drug addiction.

I was long aware of the movie of

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the same name, and that it was based on a book by Carrie Fisher, but until now I had yet to either see the movie or read the book. Now that I've read the book, I expected something different based on what I thought I knew of the movie. The movie, if memory serves, focuses more on the relationship between mother and daughter. In the book, the mother is barely even present.

The book focuses more on Suzanne Vale and her efforts to recover from her drug addiction after being rushed to the hospital to get her stomach pumped. After a stint in rehab, told through Suzanne's journal entries, she finds herself back in the world as "that actress," and we follow along as she tries to figure herself out.

I related so much to Suzanne, even though I've never taken drugs. Basically, I feel like I have a lot of the same issues she does, but never found myself taking narcotics to hide from them. Typically I just sleep. As it turns out, at one point, so does she!

I really do love Fisher's writing style. It's very conversational, especially when we get a look inside Alex's head as he comes to grip with the fact that he does, in point of fact, have a drug problem and does, in point of fact, need to be in rehab with "these people." I was expecting another meeting between Alex and Suzanne before his movie was produced, but it's probably for the best that there wasn't. It certainly wouldn't have gone well for Alex.

There's an unfortunate part of myself that relates strongly to Alex, and I hate that. He's everything I don't want to be, but in some ways feel that I am. Then again, maybe that's the point of him.

Anyway, love my Space Mom and so glad I'm finally reading her books.

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outstanding read!

Carrie Fisher’s novel, Postcards from the Edge, adapts elements from her own life in telling the story of Suzanne Vale, an actress who’s returning to life after a drug overdose. Fisher divides the novel into five sections, with the first section describing rehab from different perspectives

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through inner monologue and journal exercises. In the second section, Fisher portrays Suzanne meeting with a film producer on a date through monologue and dialogue, without any other description. In the last three sections, Fisher uses third-person narrative to tell how Suzanne begins work on a film while staying with her grandparents, going through a “normal” week, and beginning a relationship with an author.

Throughout the story, Fisher grapples with several issues. Drug abuse and overdose forms a through line to the narrative, but Fisher uses the character Suzanne to convey the feeling of not being in control of life or never trusting happiness even when one has it, so that a person keeps looking for the next momentary joy, be it junk food, shopping, or drugs. Fisher writes, “I’ve been up, and I always felt like a trespasser. A transient at the top. I’ve got a visa for happiness, but for sadness I’ve got a lifetime pass. I shot through my twenties like a luminous thread through a dark needle, blasting toward my destination: Nowhere” (pg. 16). Even when Suzanne appears to have found happiness, she doesn’t trust it. Like most of Fisher’s novels, the work is semi-autobiographical and, in light of Fisher’s passing in 2016, seems all the more insightful. Fisher later adapted the novel as a screenplay for a film directed by Mike Nichols in 1990.

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as my wife so eloquently said, "Carrie Fisher reads like butter", and she's right.

Fisher's characters are detestable at time, relatable at others, hurtling through their lives at a breakneck pace, unsure of everything and everyone around them. Fisher manages to make the most astute

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observations.

Like the fact that they have ex drug addicts to counsel current drug addicts, as if all you need to counsel someone is to not have done drugs for a while. Or the fact that they call Hollywood tinseltown, as if it is a town, with a general store, a postbox and one main street.

This is about Suzanne Vale, an actress, and her time in rehab (and everything after that). She writes characters well and dialogue even better.

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Funny story about an actress in Hollywood who goes to drug rehab and what happens in her life afterward.

Surely a best seller only because of the famous author. Mildly entertaining; perhaps more appreciated by a younger reader than myself. Life angst is just foreign to me.

It's dated and heavy on a rarified lifestyle. but Fisher is deadly funny. I'm glad she turned to memoir and essay: she is not strong on narrative. I appreciate her honesty, humor, and insight especially into addiction and self-image.

I love Fisher’s writing style. I hope they release some more of her work posthumously.

Brilliantly funny and revealing what drugs do to a person.