Postcards From the Edge

By Carrie Fisher

Took a little break from the world of horror to read something with some laughs. I just finished reading Postcards From the Edge by Carrie Fisher, and for an actress who had never written anything before (let alone a novel), she did a terrific job.

For anyone familiar with the 1990's adaptation starring Meryl Streep, it's nothing like that. The book is a lot funnier, but it's also more warped. I would say a fair assessment is that the movie succeeds in creating a more cohesive storyline whereas the novel seems deliberately messy and disjointed. But that, I think, we can say is just Carrie Fisher’s style.

Fisher seems to reflect the mess that is her protagonist’s life through the organization of the book. Starting first with how she deals with rehab, then with how she deals with life. Creating chapters that read almost like short stories that all carry the single thread—this character’s bounce back from the bottom.

This works for her.

If I had any criticisms about it, I'd say that the disjointed nature of it was at times a bit distracting because it didn't seem to fully weave together until the end. Again, reading more like short stories than a cohesive story. There were several instances I stopped myself and asked aloud, “Okay, where are we heading with this?” While Fisher eventually answered me (with her ending), there were some moments that it tried my patience just a little because I felt like the story was barely carrying momentum.

But as far as endings go, Fisher demonstrated a terrific ability to pack one last thematic punch in the short span of 20 pages. No matter what difficulties she might have displayed, Fisher compensated for it and tied it together beautifully. Once the reader sees how all of the stories came to create a beautiful mosaic, they can’t help but have a fondness for this novel.

Still, the most impressive part about the entire novel I thought were the clever subtext sentences she laid out within the text. As someone who spent an entire semester of grad school banging my head against the wall with The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter trying to learn the delicate balance of subtly in thematic passages so that they don't end up like billboards the size of Texas…what Fisher managed to do was not easy, especially for a first-time writer.

Her precise phrasings at sentence-level took skill and careful dedication. It’s the indication of someone who truly set out to say something and wasn’t about to call the manuscript finished until the reader heard everything she had to say.

It was beautiful.

I want to recommend this book to anyone who is looking to examine how a writer may appropriately use subtext to get across their meaning. The old adage “show-don’t tell” only goes so far; a novel like Postcards From the Edge is where you’ll be able to see it at work. You should definitely give it a read.