Postcards from the Edge

Postcards From the Edge, Carrie Fisher’s highly autobiographical novel, is made up of two parts, despite its table of contents which lists seven. The first one-third of the book is written in first person and contains the journal of a Hollywood starlet who is a recovering drug abuser. Her journal is very frank and introspective, clever and nicely written. Her character is very well-developed, not surprisingly, since it is probably a mirror image of the author’s own character. It’s a good portrayal of what growing up in show business can do to fragile egos. The most powerful and important component of the book is the inner monologue of a hardcore cocaine addict who is in denial. It is brilliant and, as the New York Times calls it, “harrowing”. Boy is that the right word. Fisher interlaces the guy’s monologue with the actress’s journal. The contrasts between the two characters are significant and full of meaning. And it would be hard to read the entirety of the guy’s monologue without the comic relief of her journal entries. The guy puts himself through hell, taking copious amounts of drugs, and reading his first-person account is a little taste of hell itself. But people need to understand that reality. School kids, especially, should read that part. Fisher apparently had swallowed some very strong doses of reality herself. The last two-thirds of the book is in third-person with very little plot or character development. It shows the actress putting her life and acting career back on track after getting out of drug rehab. It has some funny repartee-type dialogue, some witty narration. But it is nothing like the first part of the book, and probably can be skipped altogether. I don’t know why Fisher made the book so disjointed. Seemingly there just wasn’t enough story to fill a whole book.

This is a private look into the lives of the Hollywood celebrities, striving actors, actresses and writers. Carrie Fisher spins the tales and adventures of Suzanne Vale with a humorous twist that will surely have you laughing out loud. Suzanne spends time in rehab, has bouts of lengthy depression between acting jobs, witnesses the musical chairs of the dating game and indulges herself with high-end shopping sprees. Carrie Fisher gives a peek into the daily lives of those on the Hollywood scene and sheds light on the fact that ‘all that glitters is not gold.'

I admit I picked this one up because it was written by Princess Leia, but I'm glad I did. At times surreal, this is an excellent first novel.

Actress Carrie Fisher of 'Star Wars' fame wrote this wonderful novel about a fictional actress named Suzanne Vale. The novel is hilarious. It tackles the issues that all people today deal with and think about in their heads. It deals with drud addictions, sex, relationships, family, friends, love, fame, and success. The movie and the novel (both written by Fisher) are very different, yet very brilliant in their own seperate ways.

So, if you've never been on drugs (the illegal kind, not the prescription kind where you take according to what you're suppose to) and never had to go to rehab and aren't rich and white, this is a great book to second hand experience all that. This book has humour, some of it self deprecating in a coping type of way but it also stays on the serious side of hey this happened and this is what happened afterwards. I mean, had they made us read this in elementary school rather than having the next to useless DARE program (which really made me expect to be propositioned to do drugs more than I ever have been...twice in the 31 years I've been alive), it would have been a much better "don't do drugs" program. And most likely more effective. All in all, this was a pretty great book to read.