Postcards from the Edge

Publisher's Summary

In a stunning literary debut, Carrie Fisher chronicles the excruciatingly funny adventures of Suzanne Vale, young film star and drug addict, who survives a rehab clinic only to rejoin the equally harrowing world of Hollywood. Out there on the edge, despair flips into hilarity, and we're left laughing as Suzanne struggles to come to terms with her various fantasylands. Carrie Fisher's reading of her first novel evokes the deliciously irreverent humor that formed the lens through which she looked at life in the '80s - stardom, drugs, success, sex, and insecurity.

©1987 Carrie Fisher (P)1988, 2015 Dove Books-On-Tape, Phoenix Books

Critic Reviews

"Carrie's book is savagely funny and savagely revealing. It makes Moby Dick seem like a big, fat, dumb book." (Steve Martin)

This was filled with quotes that resonated with me

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, especially to those who deal with depression like I do. Some of the things the main character thought, were scarily similar to mine even though I've never done drugs much less been confined in Rehab.

What other book might you compare Postcards from the Edge to and why?

None, really. I haven't read or listened to anything like this before. But, if we're going to include movies, this reminded me somewhat of Trainspotting. I don't know why, it just did.

Have you listened to any of Carrie Fisher’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was the first audiobook I've listened to by Carrie Fisher. However, after this, I'm planning to get Shockaholic and Wishful Drinking next.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

There's already a film based on this book. I'm planning to watch it, too. But tag line? Maybe "A visa for happiness. A lifetime pass for sadness." since that was my favorite line in the book and the one I identified most with.

Any additional comments?

This was short, and I listened to it at work to drown out the annoying sounds of my co-workers. I loved how Carrie Fisher narrated the entire thing, and my favorite part was when Suzanne was in rehab and how she described and interacted with the other patients. Some parts of this book made me laugh because of Carrie's dry, sarcastic wit. Other parts made me unutterably sad and melancholy because it described a lot of the feelings and thoughts I've had over the years during my lowest points.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Carrie is hysterical

Where does Postcards from the Edge rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

up at the top for sure

What was one of the most memorable moments of Postcards from the Edge?

therapy

Which character – as performed by Carrie Fisher – was your favorite?

hard to pick - all so good

Who was the most memorable character of Postcards from the Edge and why?

I guess Carrie herself, how amazing to have survived all that and able to laugh at herself

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

I miss you, Carrie.

Carrie Fisher was a national treasure. She will be missed by her legion of fans. If you haven't read any of her books, do yourself a favor and start with this one. As a writer she was funny & insightful.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Vintage Carrie

Would you consider the audio edition of Postcards from the Edge to be better than the print version?
No, but equally good

Would you be willing to try another book from Carrie Fisher? Why or why not?
Absolutely--I have and will!

What does Carrie Fisher bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Because she's an actress, she can bring the story to life with her vocal inflections. She perhaps reads a tad too fast here, which was sometimes less than optimal given how much went on in the emotional life of her character.

If you could take any character from Postcards from the Edge out to dinner, who would it be and why?
Carrie herself, of course Dinah, and her mother (and grandmother) if at all possible!

Any additional comments?
I do wish Carrie Fisher's voice had remained this smooth and normal-sounding over the years! Though she was pretty much back to normal and fantastic as a reader by the time she recorded the excellent Shockaholic.

8 of 10 people found this review helpful

Postmodern autobiography?

I am impressed with how this is structured and what pieces of life she chose from bits of her daily life. It's definitely a window.

This book is not really fiction.

Carrie Fisher incessantly offers reasons why she is no hero, not even of Hollywood. She mocks her own celebrity as if to put boundaries up against it in pursuit of getting a real life, and she becomes the rebel Princess by accident.

Sorry, Carrie. You are a legend despite yourself.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

I loved it

great book great story great reader love Postcards From The Edge. I also love Carrie Fisher so therefore I'm going to love anything that she writes or reads and the fact that it's a story about her makes it even better

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

Eloquent writing and great narration

Carrie Fisher writes eloquently about the human thought process and human interaction. She has a way of putting thoughts into words that makes you question why you didn't realize these profound truths on your own, in a wonderfully insightful way. I enjoyed the plot of the first half of the book more than the second half but I was reading more for the writing and less for the storyline.

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

Ms Fisher kicked so much butt

loved hearing Carrie narrate it....she really spoke with so much enthusiasm it brought the book to life

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

cool

like carrie says theirs no plot.but I did enjoy it.
rest in peace carrie a talented writer the world has lost

1 of 3 people found this review helpful

Artfully Close To Real

What I Liked: I felt that the first half of the book was very, very strong, especially as an audio book experience. This is when the lines between Suzanne and Carrie blur the most as it's clear she draws a lot from her own experiences with rehab and therapy in order to craft Suzanne's journey. The creative efforts to use formats like the postcards and the journal really made things feel more substantial and real for some reason and that really struck a chord with me. Or maybe that just reflects how I've listened to all of her other memoirs before listening to this book.

And on the whole it's a very striking and perhaps revealing story that inevitably has you wondering which parts are just fiction and which parts turn out to be more of Carrie's life in disguise. Even the sections covering her getting back to work feel so authentic and real and I suppose that's the power of this piece.

What Could Have Been Better: That said, the shift to a third person perspective for the second half of the book felt like a sad deviation from what was already working. Mayber she got tired of the format while writing the book or maybe someone recommended that she go a bit more traditional for the other half and I felt that was a loss. The first person voice felt a lot more personal and heartfelt and it gave the character a lot more emotional weight, if you understand my meaning.

And I can also imagine a lot of people not being perfectly happy with how it ends. This is one of those books that can be quite subtle in terms of its conflict as it's all inside Suzanne. And so it feels like we temporarily joined her on her journey and we end up leaving before one really gets to the "end" of things. Not that one can really say where the "end" lies as the struggle against things like addiction are part of a larger problem that you can't easily pin down as having a start and the end. But not everyone likes not having things resolved cleanly and efficiently.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful