ok.you know that moment, at the party-you-didn't-want-to-come-to, filled with the important-people-from-work-who-don't-really-like-you, standing in the corner-of-the apartment-marked-specifically-for-losers-and-the-apartment-cat (who is now drunk and stuffed on mini shrimp popper appetizers)? the moment where you realize that you didn't wear the right shoes, your dress is being worn as a shirt by the most beautiful woman in the room, and everyone in the entire WORLD is staring at you when they are not too busy rubbing elbows, sucking up, or have just plain finished judging everyone closest too them and have run out of material?yeah, that moment.i've never been addicted to cocaine, so i can't really review what i don't know. but let's be honest. it sounded... AWESOME. carrie fisher, i didn't think standing around being stoned in "the empire strikes back" was going to prepare you for anything later in life, because that's what they taught us in DARE. but apparently it prepared you to be super observant, hilariosly witty, and amazingly devious in your vary-ing writing styles (vary-ing? what? can my editor get on that spelling please? thnx)i was amused throughout, an impressive feat because the only thing more boring than reading about people doing drugs, making bad decisions, having disgustingly casual sex, and laying around gorging themselves in self pity is watching it. (eg scorpio rising. the entire film). anyway, back to that "moment". i was amused throughout because i spent most of "throughout" thinking, oh shit, i've done that. i've thought that. i've said that exact thing, out loud, in front of a bunch of people who probably shouldn't have heard it. no matter how different the characters are from you, their stream-of-concious honesty taps those inner demons we try so very hard to keep under wraps. judgemental, annoyed, impatient, self doubting, and insecure, we've all stood in the corner of the room with the drunk housepet and simultaneously worried about our hair while berating the host for her absyminal choice in cutlery. and we don't feel bad about it either.maybe we DO need another therapy session for this, but hell, we like your writing, ms. fisher, and we don't intend to stop reading soon.("we"? as in plural? as in when did this review jump from me to we? can i get an editor on that? thnx)
So after the past couple of difficult reading choices I went for something a little easier this time, certainly no need for a dictionary anyway! This novel is written by princess Leia (well the actress who played her, Carrie Fisher) and much like when models decide to act I didn't have a huge amount of faith in the offspring of an actress deciding to write. But...it wasn't all that bad, parts of it where very witty and the writing was pretty good not great enough for me to rush out and read her other novels mind but certainly far from terrible. So what is it about? It's the story of an actress, Suzanne Vale with something of a drug problem and a flailing career and many issues concerning her own opinion of herself. It starts with her in rehab although there isn't a great deal of struggle involved in her overcoming her addiction which all sounds a bit grim but it's more of a funny little tale of her time there with the other patients and that sort of caper so nothing too deep. We move on to her trying to get her career back on track, going to parties and not fitting in, bad boyfriends so nothing too exciting in all honesty but it doesn't drag on, there's enough wit in her writing that lets it trundle along at a good pace, it all winds up ending nicely, with you guessed it, a nice boy.So all in all it's not good, but it's not bad it's just OK. An important thing to bear in mind is that it was made into a film starring Meryl Streep and I think this might be one of those rare occasions where you're better off just watching the film, you can't after all go wrong with the Streep.
What do You think about Postcards From The Edge (2002)?
Suzanne Vale is a typical Hollywood actress who obsesses about herself. She spends time in rehab for overdosing on drugs only to discover that drugs weren’t the problem, life was the problem, and drugs were just the solution. She feels guilty for messing up the life she was given and so when she is discharged from rehab she makes an effort to restart her acting career. Of course there are bumps in the road and things don’t go as smoothly as she would like them to. Then there is the matter of her love life. She meets Jesse, a writer, and they become serious. For the first time in her life she is in a normal relationship (usually she’s in a relationship with another druggie). She doesn’t know what to do when there’s no trouble and she starts to look for something to fix. Postcards from the Edge is about a twenty-nine year old woman who is trying to establish an overall plan for her overboard life so that when she reaches her thirtieth birthday she has some idea of whatever it is that her life is about.I didn’t enjoy reading this book that much. Perhaps I had high expectations for it since the novel received so much attention at the time it was published. For me, I found the main character, Suzanne Vale, as being a person who felt sorry for herself a little too much and it was difficult to relate to her or even sympathize with some of the issues she was dealing with. She had this great life but for some reason she felt like she didn’t deserve it. After awhile her psychodrama got old and I was relieved to finally finish the book.
—Lennie
This is entertaining and funny. Fisher has a dry and witty style that is easy to read and feels very honest. Her characters wallow in their insecurities, but they are aware that they are wallowing and they're pretty insecure about it. When she introduces characters that lack that awareness, they mostly come off as complete morons. I'm sure that a lot of this is based on the author's personal experiences, which probably weren't so entertaining to live through, but she seems pretty at peace with things now.
—Gavin Smith
I really thought I would like this book because I saw a special with Carrie Fisher and she was quite funny. However I just couldn't get into the drug rehab part of the book to start. I almost put it down and I really only skimmed it. It seemed just silly and self absorbed and not at all interesting. If she would have written a paragraph that said, She spent the whole time thinking about.... but it just was a running commentary of her (and another character's anxiety). The rest of the book was a bit funny, but not really worthy of a whole book.
—Amy
