Helpful Score: 3
The author writes about the process of addiction,...escape, denial, justification, etc. As well as the behind the scenes look at the movie culture,(if you read between the lines, you can catch the jokes about many well known actors) This is a well written, funny insightful and brutally honest quick moving book. This semi-autobiographical, first novel by Carrie Fisher is a winner! (The movie is good too!)
Intriguing, but disconcerting
Funny send-up of Hollywood by an insider.
For the first time ever, I thought the movie was better. Blasphemy. I know.
maybe i shouldnt have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number
In my opinion Carrie Fisher needs to stick to acting. However, some other readers disagree. This is a review I got from amazon. Fisher understands the process of addiction, that searching for escape, then denial, then endless justification. Her portrayal of drug addiction goes beyond drugs--I've never taken any, but I could see the patterns of addiction in terms of my many vices. She also understands the glad-handing movie culture enough to be able to depict it as glamorous, while also showing the pimples underneath. Bret Easton Ellis has nothing on her one scene of Suzanne going shopping: the brand names, the non-sequiturs, the endless vagaries are all things he would have died to write.
Carrie Fisher is a hilarious wit. This fiction/biography was a fun read.
A look into a world that is seriously disfunctional and takes itself very seriously
Carrie Fisher's novel about growing up in Hollywood with a star mother. It's fiction with a little bit of truth. The movie made from this starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. Fun and fast.
Suzanne Vale is funny and famous, a thirty-ish actress who has crash-landed in rehab, and navigated the humorous and harrowing byways of all of her addictions...even love. Tough yet fragile, she's hanging on -- and she's not sure why. There is her unsupporting cast of friends and lovers: Alex, an arrogantly handsome TV writer. Suzanne has a place in his heart...and maybe even in his new script. Jack, a producer and super-stud. His relationship with Suzanne is heavy on analysis and light on commitment. Lucy, her trusted gal pal. When the going gets rough, they charge away their blues on Rodeo Drive. Jesse, a novelist and the almost-too-good-to-be-true result of a "dating accident." His Niceness is boring Suzanne to death -- and driving her crazy with love.
Poignant, painful, excruciatingly funny, Carrie Fisher's bestseller is a dazzling survivor's tale, and "a wickedly shrewd, black-humor riff on the horrors of rehab and the hollows of Hollywood life" (People).
Poignant, painful, excruciatingly funny, Carrie Fisher's bestseller is a dazzling survivor's tale, and "a wickedly shrewd, black-humor riff on the horrors of rehab and the hollows of Hollywood life" (People).
Back Cover:
"Maybe I shouldn't have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number." With an opening zinger that sets the roller coaster racing, acclaimed actress Carrie Fisher takes on the new role of accomplished novelist -- and deliciously steals all the scenes! Drawing on her singular vision of real life in Lotus Land -- its dealmakers and drug-takers, its high-concept absurdities and low-budget passions -- she chronicles the poignant, painful, excruciatingly funny experiences of young star Suzanne Vale on her way down -- and up. From Suzanne's cinima verite world inside a drug rehab clinic, to the insanities and inantities of her re-entry to the Hollywood world outside, to her relationship with her eternally cheerful mother, Carrie Fisher's barbed wit, quirky imagination, and remarkable intelligenece create a stellar storytelling performance that will leave you cheering for more.
This book was a New York Times best seller and was made into a motion picture that starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.
"Maybe I shouldn't have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number." With an opening zinger that sets the roller coaster racing, acclaimed actress Carrie Fisher takes on the new role of accomplished novelist -- and deliciously steals all the scenes! Drawing on her singular vision of real life in Lotus Land -- its dealmakers and drug-takers, its high-concept absurdities and low-budget passions -- she chronicles the poignant, painful, excruciatingly funny experiences of young star Suzanne Vale on her way down -- and up. From Suzanne's cinima verite world inside a drug rehab clinic, to the insanities and inantities of her re-entry to the Hollywood world outside, to her relationship with her eternally cheerful mother, Carrie Fisher's barbed wit, quirky imagination, and remarkable intelligenece create a stellar storytelling performance that will leave you cheering for more.
This book was a New York Times best seller and was made into a motion picture that starred Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.
Carrie Fisher's semi-autobiographical first novel, "Postcards From the Edge", gives a behind-the scenes look at the gloom behind the glamour. Fisher shows a wicked sense of humor as well as a talent for storytelling. A must-read!
This is the book that the movie was based on.
