The Best Awful by Carrie Fisher

The Best Awful Reviews

• 
  Matt

  In her follow-up 'novel', Fisher continues this quasi-biographical story about Suzanne Vale. In this piece, Vale seems to have come to the horrible realisation that the man who got her pregnant has since had the sexual epiphany that he is gay. Struggling with this, Vale tries to put it all into perspective while bemoaning the offspring of a dual-celebrity relationship and the issues that are sure to be bestowed on her daughter, Honey. While Vale tries to come to terms with these new realities, she begins a carefree life that sees her trying to better understand this major change. What follows is a series of events that leave the reader with ringside tickets to the slow and constant spiral of an addict still incapable of handling the hard pitches that life seems to throw. Fisher still seems happy to amass a scattering of thoughts in veiled fiction form, with strong parallels to her own life. While a decent wordsmith, Fisher may have wanted to move away from the smarmy life she lived and choose a new avenue.
  
  I respect that everyone has their life and that an author ought to write about what they know best. That said, writing quality is a major factor in producing a decent piece of fiction (and one would hope non-fiction as well). This remained more of a train wreck than the first 'novel' in the series and I can only be thankful that there will be no others. The difficulties of a Hollywood star bleed through the pages of this book, though it is as though Fisher wants to excuse the behaviour that comes with the pressure of life under the microscope. I am not prepared to give her a pass, even as she has passed on, and blow rainbows into this review for something that was less than mediocre. Vale proves to be even more vapid than the first story and offers little of insight or entertainment for the reader, save her running off the rails when things get a little difficult. Another story with few characters of interest and where most were lacklustre. Again the search for a plot turns up less than the manner Jabba the Hutt might have shown on a good day. Fisher again tries to tell a monologue of her life, though does not stick with the short memoirs that she has released. This is by no means the best of anything, but it was awful.
  
  Shameful, Madam Fisher that you would continue to offer up such fictional drivel. Thank god you know how to write or this would have been the hottest mess I have come across in a long time.
  
  Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
  
  http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
• 
  Maggie

  I really tried to like this book. I want to like Carrie Fisher's work. She seems like an incredibly kickass person, the sort of aunt you would want on your side when your mother is being completely unreasonable about your choice of boyfriend or when you find yourself alone and crying on a bus.
  
  It seems that Fisher writes a novel after surviving incredibly traumatic of difficult periods in her life. Postcards from the Edge, which is excellent, details her first trip into rehab. Surrender the Pink documents her break up with Paul Simon (who becomes an anal and genius playwright instead of an anal and genius songwriter). The Best Awful takes on Carrie's experience not only with her diagnosed bipolar disorder* but also the fact that her husband has left her... for another man.
  
  There are flashing moments of brilliance in this work which brings back Suzanne Vale, our heroine from Postcards.... There's Thor, the Serbian and way too young for her boyfriend, her delightfully precocious and witty daughter Honey, and Craig, who gets her out of every jam. Yet the work as a whole somehow falls short. Her musings on being bipolar and her moods (which is touched on in Surrender The Pink as well) are caught between candid honesty and a sugary coating of humor. I can see the necessity of tempering and balancing the pain with fun, but it's not as effective this time around. Fisher almost seems to be trying too hard to get this work out of her, to cover up the autobiographical elements. And, as I reader who is vaguely aware of the world, I find this a bit difficult to take in.
  
  I'm left wondering, especially at the end, just what is real and what isn't and really, does that matter at all? I want to find Suzanne/Carrie and sit down and make sure that they're okay, really okay, despite the "happy ending". That feeling bumped the review up an additional star - if you seduce me into worrying about your character, you've got to be doing something right.
  
  It's worth a read if you enjoyed Postcards from the Edge, just to see where Vale wound up, or if your a fan of Carrie Fisher. I somehow feel a close connection to this woman and want something more for her, something better than this novel seems to suggest (both in topic and in execution).
  
  *If you're British and can order it or American and can find it on YouTube, Fisher was recently featured in Stephen Fry's The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. Both her interview and the work as a whole is informative, moving, and generally amazing.
• 
  Foteini Fp

  Ήξερα την Fisher από το Star Wars και είπα να την μάθω και ως συγγραφέα-τι το 'θελα. Το βιβλίο είναι κουραστικό, μονότονο και η ηρωίδα over the top, self-absorbed, καταθλιπτική, μεγαλομανής, δοκιμάζει και λίγα ναρκωτικά, έχει και διπολική προσωπικότητα, είναι drama queen και πολλές άλλες ξένες και ελληνικές λέξεις που ζωγραφίζουν έναν χαρακτήρα τον οποίο δεν μπορείς να συμπαθήσεις με τίποτα και ουδόλως σε αφορούν οι καταστροφές που παθαίνει. Εκ των υστέρων έμαθα ότι είναι το sequel και αισθάνθηκα τυχερή που διάβασα κατευθείαν το δεύτερο και δεν έχασα χρόνο με το πρώτ��. Πάντως θα πρότεινα να μετονομαστεί σε Just Awful.
  Αστεράκια 2.
• 
  Snotchocheez

  (1 star for the first half of the book; 4 stars for the way-too-real account of the downward spiral into the abyss; 1 star for the ridiculous Hollywood Ending = 2 Stars total)
  
  Oh, Carrie Fisher, the stories you could tell! (if only you could construct a coherent sentence, or refrain from jokey aphorisms that simply aren't funny or out of context). Of all of Hollywoodland, the one person I've always wanted to meet, who'd seemed the most free of pretention and disaffectedness, who'd be most apt to be down-to-earth and willing to hobnob with the hoi polloi, is Carrie Fisher. Each time I'd seen her on a talk show, recounting her battles with addiction and relating her wacked-out childhood with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, I'd marvel at her resiliency and her intact sense of humor.
  
  Along came "Postcards From the Edge" (whence the publicity talk-show circuit tours) and the acclaim that came with the movie adaptation of it (which I didn't have a chance to see...or read), and Carrie decided that her exercise in catharsis via writing a thinly-veiled fictional account of hers and other Hollywood-babies' lives was not yet complete, so along comes the unfortunately-titled sequel "The Best Awful" (it's a title! it's a ready-made review headline! Woohoo!) which, quite honestly, is pretty damn awful (and i'm not talking about the best kind, either.
  
  Her protagonist, Suzanne Vale, who evidently doggone-near lost her marbles in the first book, reprises her role as Hollywood Baby-cum-sometime-starlet, although this time her trigger is her husband turning gay on her a few years after the birth of her daughter. She kinda floats along wafting in a sea of Hollywood Despair, fueled by antidepressants and dinner parties and encroaching menopause. Suzanne is insufferably glib, totally unfunny, and Carrie's account of Ms. Vale's vapid, superficial, whiny nature is all-but-unreadable. (Although in retrospect, maybe that was Carrie's intention). She wafts from dinner party to dinner party, from friend to friend bemoaning her condition as a "fag widow", grousing about her single mother-hood and her dearth of potential replacements for said newly-gay ex. Only when Suzanne decides to stop taking her antidepressants and has a severe manic episode that leads her to the loony bin is when the story finally takes flight (about mid-way through). Evidently Carrie KNOWS what it's like to go off one's meds and go totally nuts, or she wrote this whilst in the middle of a manic episode herself, because she TOTALLY NAiLS the frenetic aimless frenzy Ms. Vale experiences as she slides unknowingly to her psychological demise. It almost makes up for the 150+ pages of vapidity that precedes the manic attack, but a groan-worthy Hollywood Ending undermines Carrie's best intentions. I'm presuming (given what little I know of its better received prequel) you'd be better off reading that and skipping this rather insipid retread.
• 
  ꕥ AngeLivesToRead ꕥ

  I listened to the audiobook, read by the author. Like "Postcards From the Edge," this one was said to be very much mined from her real life. It was by no means great, but in once again detailing the many trials of her alter ego, Suzanne Vale, some huge belly laughs were to be found - especially in scenes when she would gently mock and/or imitate her movie-star mother.
  
  The main trajectory of these stories - there isn't really a plot - focuses on Suzanne's struggle to cope with the fact that her husband, and the father of her child, has left her for a man. Suzanne has bipolar disorder, and this hugely life-altering event doesn't help her situation. She wants to be a good mother to her daughter, Honey, and keep her life on an even keel, but it is a struggle. Eventually, after some bad personal and medication choices, she suffers a breakdown and ends up doing a short stint in a mental hospital. Upon her release, she resolves to stay on track, for herself and for her loved ones.
  
  Since Carrie Fisher so recently passed away, it was especially poignant listening to these revelatory stories drawn from her life. Her humorous views on life in the shadow of her famous mother were well-documented, and a recurring theme in "Postcards From the Edge" was how Debbie Reynolds seemed incapable of not stealing the spotlight, even from her own daughter. So I like to think Carrie would have found it wryly humorous that the very next day after she herself died of a heart attack, her mother died of a stroke - overshadowing her for the final time.
• 
  Carolee

  "Like many people when they were manic, she imagined that everything she said was both riveting and worthy of note, and endlessly served up large pieces of her distorted mind. She possessed all the intensity and energy that generally came with intellect, only in her case, those characteristics came hopelessly alone." pg 220. Perhaps THE best insight into Carrie Fisher [Vanity Fair heralded her as "one of our most painfully hilarious correspondents from the edge of sanity"] I suspect this book is even MORE autobiographical than 'Postcards' - she describes manic like a first-class passenger ... Now, I should have typed that last word as passanger as a tribute to her clever writing! Never a dull momentos from her trip ... a soliloquy through sanity. Loved it!
• 
  ryan wilkey

  Sequel to
  Postcards from the Edge. I enjoyed this, but not as much as the first.
• 
  ElphaReads

  When Carrie Fisher tragically passed away at the end of 2016, I, like many, was pretty torn up about it. I loved her in everything she was in, and I loved that we had such a spirited and candid mental health advocate in the spotlight to be honest and open about her struggles. I truly believe that her activism did a lot when it comes to de-stigmatizing mental illness, and while we have a long way to go, Fisher did much good. She is also a whip smart and funny as hell writer, working as both a script doctor (she pretty much wrote THE WEDDING SINGER, guys, how cool) and an author. I decided that I wanted to read one of her books in her memory. I went with THE BEST AWFUL, the sequel to POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE. Because someone I thought a lot about after her death was her daughter, Billie.
  
  Susanna Lowe has moved past her time in POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE. She got married to a director named Leland and had a beautiful baby daughter with him, whom they named Honey. But then Leland... came out. And left her for another man. Susanna has been raising Honey alone, trying to keep her life together for the sake of her daughter. But pressures and stress push her to stop taking her medication for bipolar disorder. And then she starts to fall into a manic episode, while those around her look on, somewhat helplessly. Susanna's love for her daughter is what gets her through, in this novel that is 'based on a truant's story'.
  
  So while it's a novel, much like POSTCARDS, THE BEST AWFUL clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Fisher's life. Fisher was always open about her struggles with bipolar disorder and what it could lead her to do, and so reading this book, while wickedly funny, was kind of hard. My gosh, if these are things that actually happened to Fisher, she was far braver and stronger than I ever gave her credit for. The best parts for me were the scenes between Susanna and Honey (based on Billie, I'd imagine), Susanna and her mother, and Susanna and her close friend Craig (I'm not certain and it's probably not right, but is he partially based on Mark Hamill? I hope so). This book is also very hard at times, like I said, because Susanna finds herself in dangerous and upsetting situations, be in lost in a manic (and violent) cloud in Tiajuana, or being found unconscious. Damn. I love how Fisher was just so real and honest about this stuff, and I also like that she sees some of her own absurdity and can laugh at herself when she feels like it.
  
  This book was melancholy to read, but I'm very glad that I did. I am going to miss Carrie Fisher so much.
• 
  Ashley

  I listened to this on Audio books, and it was just boring. To me, there really wasn't any type of actual story. Blah blah blah, she's bipolar, she's depressed, she nearly kills herself, she goes into rehab. I have enough depressing things in life to think about. I don't need a book to follow the same lines. This was due back on the 20th, and I didn't even finish the last cd. I never do that. It was just horrible.
• 
  Wendy Eastman link

  Having experienced bipolar first hand, I saw myself in this book. At one point I had to stop because the way she described being manic, the experience it was almost too realistic. When Carrie Fisher wrote this book I found it to be very close to her own life. I didn't know she had "it". Truth is stranger than fiction. There was a lot of strange truth in these pages. Who else do you know wakes up to find a dead man in their bed? And that ain't all folks. It's a carnival of mental illness, booze, drugs, and a little coming of age thrown in. It's a great read.
• 
  Mary Montgomery

  This woman is the best wordsmith I've ever encountered, and I've read a lot. Sometimes I just had to read phrases over a few times and even out loud to grok the fullness. She is amazing.
  
  It was rather hard to read the parts about mental illness, but I think she described it very well. I am now reading everything she ever wrote, and wish I had encountered her earlier.
• 
  Jackballoon

  This book is very depressing, revealing what addicts and mentally ill people go through. And i'm guessing many addicts are mentally ill. its very hard to comprehend, but makes me realize that whatever is wrong with my life is not nearly as bad as it could be.
• 
  Callum McLaughlin

  Though it can be read as a standalone, The Best Awful is a semi-sequel to Fisher’s debut novel, Postcards from the Edge, continuing to explore the trials and tribulations of Suzanne Vale, washed up actress and recovering addict. This time around, we find Suzanne heartbroken and humiliated, the father of her young daughter having left her for a man. Paranoid that she’s the ‘lesser’ parent, numbed by her bipolar medication, daunted by the prospect of modern dating, and horrified that her friends are starting to think her boring, Suzanne heads down a slippery slope that threatens to jolt her off the wagon, and land her in ‘the bin’.
  
  This is possibly the most convincingly raw account of a mental breakdown I’ve ever read. It simmers with the kind of urgency and honesty that only someone with first-hand experience could have penned. The dizzying highs and the desolate lows of Suzanne’s bipolar ‘mood weather’ are captured with equal fervour; the disorientating claustrophobia of being inside her head as she loses her grip on reality like a drawn-out car crash – one you can’t tear your eyes from, no matter how brutal it gets. Indeed, the almost erratic feel of the narrative voice at times may alienate some, but it serves as a painfully realistic reflection of the heroine’s scattered perspective; her million-miles-an-hour mindset that offers no respite.
  
  When Fisher really delves into the mental health struggles of her characters, there’s an added level of poignancy, with most readers aware of how autobiographical many of the events explored are. But she never loses her ability to infuse the darkness with some much-needed light. Zingy one-liners and clever word play bring a darkly comic edge of self-deprecation to the story that makes Suzanne very endearing, no matter how flawed she is. For she is, indeed, a very complex character. For all the terrible decisions she makes, the cutting sarcasm, and the dips into vanity, it becomes clear that much of this is the product of a woman full of guilt and self-loathing; the victim of a vapid culture that has left her unsure how to properly function in or out of the spotlight.
  
  It’s a story of rock-bottom and recovery; the pitfalls of a life lived under the pressure of Hollywood; unconventional family; and one woman’s quest to make peace with herself – a backwards coming of age story delayed by a few decades.
  
  The end in particular becomes playfully meta, when a character writes the following to Suzanne:
  
  ‘When we have experience and strength to share with someone who’s gone through a similar difficulty, then the right thing to do is share that experience, and give comfort and hope when we can. I know you’ll do the right thing.’
  
  The obvious implication is that these are the very words Fisher herself tried to live her latter years by. Suffice to say, she did the right thing.
• 
  Sean Kennedy

  This is a sequel more to the movie of "Postcards From the Edge" than the book. It makes for a disjointed read when the two books are read in conjunction as the two worlds never seem to meld that cohesively. The ending also seems rather tacked on and more like a wish fulfillment than an earned arc.
  
  However, the middle section where Suzanne goes off her medication is brilliant - an exceptional piece of writing. We see Suzanne's behaviour become erratic while she is totally oblivious to it. It is subtle and clever as Suzanne becomes an even more unreliable narrator while she remains steadfastly confident in the fucked-up things she is doing.
  
  It's a shame the book feels like two stories struggling as one - but maybe that's an apt reflection of Suzanne's journey itself.
  
  Even when Fisher's work isn't her best, there is still so much good in it. Her talent is sorely missed.
• 
  Kate

  My love for Carrie Fisher is well documented, and after reading all four of her novels this year, I would say justified. Completely justified. This book picks up maybe a decade after Postcards from the Edge and like all of Fisher's novels, the lines blur between fiction and her real life experiences. It almost seems as if she's the kind of person writing "I have a friend with a problem, and this friend suffers from addiction and mental disorders," and you're kind of left going, well, Carrie, tell your 'friend'....
  
  So Carrie, tell Suzanne that we love her and we want her to be happy and healthy and that we are all so grateful that you're getting the help you need. It can't be easy, at least, judging from Suzanne's experiences in this book. But we love you and are proud of you.
• 
  Kathleen

  Was this book full of developed characters? No. Did this book have a clear narrative? Not really. Was this really a novel? Meh...But DAMN this shit is good. Carrie Fisher was an iconic. Her comedic voice was unparalleled. This fictionalized version of her mid-life relapse is funny, insightful, clever, and devastating. I learned so much from this book and feel like I’ve just spent hours with an old friend.
• 
  Teesa

  I've been a longtime fan, just getting around to reading her books. I always wanted to write like her painting scenes with words. I enjoy this slice of her life and admire her courage to write about it.
• 
  Sunny

  I'm biased towards anything Carrie wrote, but I love the ending of the book. I also like trying to figure out the conversion of characters to real people, and what parts actually happened to Carrie and what is novel.
• 
  Molly

  'The Best Awful,' by Carrie Fisher, was an easy read with funny and insightful moments, but I think I was hoping to enjoy it more, as it didn't quite live up to my expectations....
  
  The Best Awful follows the life of Suzanne Vale - the actress we previously met in 'Postcards from the Edge.' I really enjoyed PFTE (see review) and as a result, was eager to start reading this follow up novel. Although Fisher creates a range of interesting characters, with Suzanne being the leading lady, they didn't quite have the same charm we experienced with PFTE.
  
  Firstly, I don't think the style of writing was balanced as well as it could have been. Yes, it was dark comedy, but unfortunately it failed to hit either chord that well. I didn't find it that funny, and although Suzanne's manic depression was dark and certainly tragic, I feel it lacked a depth that meant her downfalls didn't resonate or stay that closely with me. There were sections that made me sit up and take note for sure - but the rest moved a bit too slowly.
  
  That said, this book was an interesting insight into the world of mental health in Hollywood and it was eye-opening to read about the thought processes and actions of someone with manic depression. Suzanne is likeable, and her roller-coaster of emotion and punchy quick wit could be quite fun (albeit tragic), but unfortunately she didn't have the same charm as she did when we met her in PFTE. However, this book was different from the first, and perhaps Suzanne was intended to be different, so maybe I just preferred what book 1 was all about.
  
  Overall, The Best Awful was an easy read but possibly too long. It didn't really build momentum in the way I had imagined it might. The ending was a bit odd and I am not totally sure what the desired effect was for the final chapter of this book. Maybe I am missing something! I did enjoy finding out what Suzanne got up to in book 2, but I'm not sure I'd pick it up again.
  
• 
  Julie Bozza

  A tough read at times - for me, at least - due to the topics of mental health and of drugs, legal and il. But I've read all of Carrie's novels now, and this is the best written of the four. Really good writing!
  
  Now it's time to approach the memoirs... It will be interesting to read them in the context of novels, given that the novels are so obviously based in her own life. (I've got a biography waiting for me, too!)
• 
  Terri Suda

  Because I can never get enough of Carrie Fisher, her voice, her wit and humor, her honesty. Laugh out loud, yet cringe worthy and a bit heart breaking. Loved audio version via Hoopla, read by the author.
• 
  Tracy Collier

  Read by the author, I enjoyed it as much or more than I would had I read it. So much of Carrie Fisher's life is between the lines or right out in the open as she details her main character. Well written and tragically funny. I will likely read more of her books.
• 
  Becky

  DNF 23%
  These books are based very closely on Carrie Fisher’s real life. I absolutely adore Carrie Fisher, but I have a hard time separating her and the character of Suzanne.
  In my opinion, her autobiography’s are better and more worth reading.
• 
  Laurie W

  I love this author! She is smart, funny and very observant. Her pithy stories of addiction and mental illness while mothering and nurturing other relationships are very entertaining.
• 
  Blue

  Love, love, love this!!!
• 
  AAAlien

  La amo.
• 
  Emer Tannam

  This book is smart, funny, and sad, but the description of the experience of manic-depression is so intense that it isn’t really enjoyable, but then it probably shouldn’t be.
• 
  I.M. Flippy

  I miss Carrie.