Self-Speech as Self-Defense: A review of Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher

Admittedly, I'm writing this review in a rush.

I made a resolution this year to review every book I read for this blog, and I finished this book Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher, and I loved it so much that I ordered the movie from Netflix. The movie arrived in the mail today, and Ruthie and I are going to watch it after dinner, which Ruthie is currently preparing.

And I know that somehow, in some way I can't yet identify, writing a review of the book after watching the movie would be a whole different deal. How could I avoid a comparison? How could I speak to the content of the book when its images have been jostled around, overrun, and challenged by the movie?

And this book already has enough filmic baggage to deal with. For example, take the inevitably distracting fact that it was written by Carrie Fisher, who plays Princess Leia. It's hard, while reading, not to imagine Leia with her white gown and buns of hair narrating this story. It's also hard not to think of it as autobiography, which I'm sure much of it is. And then to wonder who did to her what the characters in the story do to the narrator.

And I suppose that layer adds to the whole story, which is good enough on its own. The main character essentially watches her own life and narrates it to those around her in witty one-liners, transcending her own pretensions by pretending to be honest by being honest.

As she runs through rehab, unemployment, a return to stardom, one relationship and one complicated unrelationship, Fisher does such a hilarious job, both as a character in the story and as an author fictionalizing her own very surreal life that I thought on more than one occassion of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

I told my friend this on the phone last night and I instantly wondered if that was a mistake. It might make it sound like I didn't understand IJ, or like I enjoy fluffy little Hollywood books as much as big blue masterpieces. I'll stand by the comparison, though. While Wallace treats the theme of honesty as a form of pretense incidentally, Fisher wallows around in it, draws it out, and tickles it. Her form is so understated and witty that I wonder if I should take it as seriously as I do, and feel so moved.

So there you have it, kids. If you liked Infinite Jest, you should check out Postcards from the Edge. It will blow your mind, but in a much smaller block of time, in a much more modest way, and with absolutely no endnotes.