Surrender the Pink [Audio Cassette]

Carrie Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1990

The author of Postcards from the Edge turns to the subject of modern romance in this hilarious saga of one woman's sexual awakening. 2 cassettes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The tendency of Dinah Kaufman to blur the borders between her life and the soap opera scripts she pens is the central conceit of Fisher's ( Postcards From the Edge ) second novel. Two years after the breakup of her marriage to award-winning playwright Rudy Gendler, Dinah remains in limbo, not really wanting him back but lacking a satisfying stand-in. So, idled by a writers' strike, she tails Rudy and his current love, the compliant Lindsey, to the Hamptons. Dinah proves to be the prototypical "new woman" in her uncertainties and gender confusions; she finds it hard to relinquish the "pink" girlish fantasy that a man will indeed secure her happiness ever after. She knows she always seems to love men who later leave her, but understanding this and changing her life for the better pose two distinctly different challenges. Only after making a dismal attempt to conform to Rudy's expectations of her does Dinah finally--and literally--write him out of her life. Unlike Fisher's fragmented, rather brittle first book, this one allows readers to get close to the main character, with the result that smart, funny Dinah is also quite touching. Author tour; Literary Guild alternate; Doubleday book club alternate.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The five connected vignettes of actress Fisher's first novel, Postcards from the Edge (LJ 8/87), exhibited greater coherence and stronger plot than this rambling, talky second novel. Here Dinah Kaufman, soap opera writer/producer, works through her divorce from her long-time companion/husband, playwright Rudy Gendler. Despite some very funny bits (especially one with Mama, a Sag Harbor psychic), the "process" still seems interminable. By novel's end, the reader may feel like Blaine MacDonald, one of Kaufman's soap opera characters, who says on his deathbed, "You know, one of the things I'm looking forward to most about dying? . . . I won't have to talk about relationships anymore." A disappointment, but readers of Postcards will probably request this. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/90; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
- Francine Fial koff, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Dove Entertainment Inc (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558009493
• ISBN-13: 978-1558009493
• ASIN: 1558002715
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,059,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, became an icon when she starred as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. Her star-studded career includes roles in numerous films such as The Blues Brothers and When Harry Met Sally. She is the author of five bestselling novels, Wishful Drinking, Surrender the Pink, Delusions of Grandma, The Best Awful, and Postcards from the Edge, which was made into a hit film starring Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep. Fisher's experience with addiction and mental illness--and her willingness to speak honestly about them--have made her a sought-after speaker and respected advocate.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More thinly veiled autobiography, September 5, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Surrender the Pink (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Carrie Fisher can act AND write!, June 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Surrender the Pink (Hardcover)

I FINALLY read "Surrender the Pink" and I have to tell you, while I wasn't quite able to surrender to the story entirely, I did enjoy a semi-fun read. First, the down points. For being such a strong woman, Carrie comes off as entirely too sexist for my tastes. She repeatedly reinforces the idea of the "weaker" sex, continually whining and kavetching about how horrible it is to be a woman. I agree, women are oppressed and a lot of times it's tough, but this male-identified authoress puts her own sex and herself down entirely too much. (As far as the character being a different person other than herself, I'm not buyin' it.) But she does have some pretty funny insights about the human condition and that alone kept me grinning and turning pages. I was fascinated by Carrie's choice to include little science factoids on animal mating habits, juxtaposing these tidbits with facets of her own (character's) story. It was a nice frame. I also dug the open-ending ending,. Glad it's not TOO tidy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good if you've already read Postcards from the Edge, September 20, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Surrender the Pink (Mass Market Paperback)

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].)