Surrender the Pink by Carrie Fisher
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Two Stars
Best for: Those who (like me) are insisting on reading all of Carrie Fisher’s writing.
In a nutshell: A woman alternately attempts to either win back or move on from her failed relationship.
Line that sticks with me: “She’s completely undemanding somehow.” “How can you respect that?” “Why do I have to respect? I enjoy it.”
Why I chose it: It’s Carrie Fisher, and I want to read all of her work.
Review: I’m not sure if this book of hers just didn’t connect with others or what, but it wasn’t included when I attempted to order all of her work through my local bookstore. I stumbled upon it while looking up the chronology of her writing, and so ended up ordering it through Amazon. The book is physically large – it feels like the size of a self-published book, which makes me think that the publisher isn’t the one who issued this reprint…
Anyway, this book is fine. It’s not bad, but I won’t be reading it again, and it’ll probably end up donated to a half-price book store or Goodwill. It’s a fine, fairly quick read, with some clever lines. It also contains a scene that, frankly, would have sold me on turning it into a movie, because I was doing the equivalent of watching through my fingers (side note: that’s much less effective when reading). So awkward, but so good.
However, I think the story was a little scattered for me. Some of it spans years, while the meat of it spans two or three days. I just had a hard time staying focused. There is also a lot more sex than I was expecting (although I supposed in retrospect the title makes more sense now). Nothing wrong with that, but when you’re like 20 pages in and getting a fairly vivid description of the main character’s three times losing her virginity (she explains it) – well, let’s just say that’s not exactly what I was expecting to read during my commute to work.
Ms. Fisher’s writing clearly has a bit of autobiography in it, so her main characters always seem to be actors and in the film or television industry. I appreciate that she sticks with what she thinks she knows best, and that having characters who write and act allows them a bit more freedom of movement and space, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Basically, if you want an entertaining read and find this at your library, I don’t think you’ll be unhappy with it.
