Postcards From the Edge

Right. So, not my favourite style of writing. That being said, I enjoyed this book, and I found it to be witty. And funny. Somehow, witty and funny have different connotations.

Essentially, this little novel relays the tale of the unhappy but hilarious actress Suzanne Vale. The first part is epistolary, detailing her time in rehab, her struggles and relationships with the other people in rehab. She makes it sounds tragic but somehow fun. Partway through the first chapter, we are introduced to a character named Alex who reminds me wayyyyy too much of someone I have known for years, and that's not a good thing. He's self-important but self-loathing, pretentious, cowardly, self-delusional, and misogynistic. And a coke fiend. So the reader gets events from Suzanne's more chill perspective, and then through his demented one. He is tough to handle. Especially when one has known someone like that.

After that, the writing style changes, becomes dialogue-heavy and almost post-modern, I guess? It's not a style I read often, but Ms Fisher is great at it. The rest of the novel details Suzanne's experiences with acting, life as a woman in Hollywood, depression, and her troubled love life. Ms Fisher is actually a really incredibly good writer and really hilarious. The style of the novel is difficult for me to read quickly, but that's more a personality thing, I think. It's short and punchy, and even though it's very definitely the 80s, it's still relevant. Her troubles and her lying in a depressed state in bed for nine days–though seemingly ridiculous–ring true for me, for people I know. Even if we've never literally done that, most of us have probably wanted to. Even though Suzanne is a wealthy actress and therefore privileged, her troubles are real. I feel as though she's the answer to the dearth of privileged white men writing about quarter- or mid-life crises or about their sexual coming of age, lalalala, because that is ALL over literature. So it's refreshing to have a female voice in there. She feels real, despite the wealth.

Carrie Fisher, continuing to be awesome.