Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher

She’s flawed and downright reckless, but it never comes off as self-destructive. (Albeit without the Hollywood glitz and glamour.) “ Do You Always Talk in Bumper Stickers?“ It is precisely what the back and forth of every mother-daughter relationship (or rivalry) looks like.

It is hopeful yet hopeless, tranquil yet turbulent. And Suzanne can’t bottle up her mommy issues, jumping head-first into a bad relationship, and later, back into the arms of drugs. Doris can’t help poking her nose into Suzanne’s affairs, offering unsolicited advice and outshining her daughter every chance she gets. They are chalk and cheese, unable to find common ground without stepping on each other’s shoes.

As if it couldn’t get worse, she’s been advised to move back in with Doris (Shirley MacLaine), her also-famous actress mother, a woman whose shadow Suzanne had spent years trying to get out from under. We meet Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep), a vivacious actress who wakes up in rehab after one too many drug benders. It is quintessentially the most Carrie Fisher a film could ever be, without her ever making an appearance. Her infamous novel, Postcards from the Edge, was adapted in 1990 and is loosely based on her bouts with addiction and growing up with celebrity parents.

She penned novels and memoirs that were wildly popular, and punched up numerous film scripts into something far greater than they were. Now outside of her galactic adventures as everyone’s favourite space princess general, Fisher was a wickedly good writer.

Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher