"Maybe I shouldn't have given the guy who pumped my stomach my phone number . . . "
This is one of my favorite first lines ever. Thus starts Carrie Fisher's first novel, Postcards from the Edge. This is probably her best known novel, thanks to the movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley Maclaine. The novel starts in a drug rehab (technically, it starts with the main character, actress Suzanne Vale, overdosing on painkillers) and moves through the first year or two after her recovery.
The novel follows Suzanne through all the usual potential pitfalls after recovery--family relationships, work, dating. She struggles but faces it all (or hides from it all) with Carrie Fisher's trademark honesty, wit, style, and intelligence.
For this, I listened to Audible's version of the book. I chose this because it's read by Carrie Fisher herself. And I dislike this version because it comes with the audiobook word I can't stand: abridged. It's under 2.5 hours, so it's quick and easy to listen to it in one sitting. But it's abridged. I'd much rather get the unabridged version of any book. But: it's read by Carrie Fisher. Which is so fantastic.
The first part of the novel is Suzanne's journal from rehab, and hearing it in read by the author blurs the already fuzzy lines here between the reality of the character and the reality of the author. It's pretty obvious that Fisher draws pretty heavily on her own experiences, and hearing her read a first-person journal makes it feel like a memoir. However, the rest of the novel is written in third person, so it sounds like Carrie Fisher reading you a novel.
I've been wanting to go back and reread the novel for years, and now that I've listened to this version again, I want to read the whole thing again even more, followed by The Best Awful, her later novel that revisits Suzanne Vale later in her life and career. I have not yet read The Best Awful, so that is something that I am really looking forward to.
I am sorry that we lost such an amazing talent so soon, but I am also so grateful for the words that Carrie Fisher shared with us while she was here. I will cherish her books and her films and her legacy, and I encourage everyone to read some of her words whenever possible. And if you need a place to start, Postcards from the Edge is the perfect place to start.