Surrender the Pink: Surrender the Pink

I don't usually read books where the relationship between a man and a woman takes center stage, the horrors that imitate real life are draining and exhausting at times, only making me feel lucky that I don't have to deal with such things. Luckily this book was so much more than that, it was a lot of fun to read and the ending didn't suck, I loved it! After reading "Wishful Drinking" and "Postcards from the Edge" I was ready for one more Carrie Fisher book before I switched themes for a while, this is referred to as a romance but it's got plenty of comedy and non stop male-female conflicts that were anything but romantic. Dinah Kaufman is a young screenwriter who only wants what she can't have. When she's married to Rudy Gendler conflicts and lack of sweetness and proper communication take a toll on them until they break up. Once he's gone and in another woman's arms there's nothing sweeter to Dinah then the thought of them back together, she suffers from mood swings and unsatisfying flings then goes dry for so long that hunting her ex-husband down in the Hamptons where he's staying with his new blond girlfriend for the summer seems like a great idea. Her career is a success mostly because she's using her dysfunctional relationships as a guide for her fictional characters that reflect her soap opera like life. Dinah is an endearing person, her habit of buying band aids to cover her thumbs so she wont pick at her skin is real albeit whacky, the funny ways in which she tires to become more domesticated (cooking is not one of her virtues) and her search for happiness are all splendidly written and Fisher includes all of Dinah's brainstorming into the story giving her depth. I felt that Dinah sounded little older than her age (twenty eight) but perhaps going through the hellish relationships that she chose to pursue robbed her of her innocence and youthfulness. Once she makes up her mind and goes for the guy, unforeseen obstacles make her question her true heart's desire. The ending was a real surprise ( in a good way) which was nice for a change, lately any book I picked fell apart at the end, but this was solid. The book was easy to get through once I got used to the constant second guessing that Dinah was doing, I actually liked it best out of all of Carrie's books and the dialogue was priceless, I wanted to bookmark all the fun quotes but at the end there were too many, it's something I would love to read again in the future to make sure I get all of it absorbed because Carrie Fisher has a lot on her mind and writing seems to be a form of therapy for her, I hope she never stops. - Kasia S.

Very well written! Carrie writes with cunning wit. She Puts the visual in the readers mind. This book is artistically sound.5 stars to Carrie Fisher!

I am Carrie Fisher's biggest fan and this book is excellent! Carrie has great wit and talent and I am glad she brings it into films AND novels. She is one of the funniest people alive and I wish her all the best for the future and a great life to spend with Billie :) Also, I just wanted to say that I admire Carrie for her willpower, too. She sure had (and has) a lot of it :)

This book was really good because of the fact that Carrie has a talent to put her emotions on paper and display the humorous aspects of life throught these wondeful novels she has constructed with her self-image

In Postcards from the Edge you could easily see that there was only a fine line dividing Fisher from the exploits of her main character, Suzanne Vail. After all, Fisher had been in drug therapy; so was Vail. Fisher was a movie star, daughter of movie stars; so was Vail. The success of Postcards from the Edge, however, wasn't in the voyeuristic opportunities of seeing how Fisher's life was like from her point-of-view, but the point-of-view itself: sarcastically caustic and witty. Well, it's all back in Surrender the Pink. And I mean all back. Once again, you wonder just how much of Dinah Kaufman is fictional and how much Fisher. How much of this failed relationship between Dinah and her famous playwright ex-husband Rudy Gendler is taken from the break-up of Fisher and famous songwriter ex-husband Paul Simon. The wit and sarcasm are there as well, this time informed with brief quotes on the nature of sex in the animal kingdom. However, Surrender the Pink isn't quite as satisfying as Postcards from the Edge. For all the action that takes place here, what one remembers are the interminable "talking heads" on the cliched differences between men and women. Even though the characters (and Fisher) realize that they are repeating cliches, it makes it no easier for the reader to swallow. The only thing that kept me reading at times were the occasional glimpses of true lunacy that was the focus of Postcards from the Edge. Surrender the Pink is also a more traditional narrative, with chapters and backflashes that flow evenhandedly, rather than the herky-jerky, episodic nature of Postcards from the Edge. Unfortunately, the bridges in Surrender the Pink probably would have been better exorcised rather than be allowed to bog the narrative as they do. For all its jerks, Postcards from the Edge was the better book. (This "review" originally appeared in First Impressions Installment Two [http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/fi.contents.html].)