DELUSIONS OF GRANDMA

Rating:
Summary: I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY?
Review: "Delusions of Grandma" is the kind of book you actually want to put down! Reason being, it is so beautifully written, such a wonderful read, you just don't want it to end! Savor every word of this precious gem and share it with your friends.

Rating:
Summary: Carrie carries it off once again!
Review: "Delusions of Grandma" is the kind of book you actually want to put down! Reason being, it is so beautifully written, such a wonderful read, you just don't want it to end! Savor every word of this precious gem and share it with your friends.

Rating:
Summary: bringing up baby
Review: Another wonderfully funny book by Carrie Fisher. I think this one is definately the best of all her books. (much like the star wars movies are also best in backwards order) Screenwriter Cora Sharpe finds out that she is pregnant by her ex boyfriend and is ultimately alarmed by the news. Her mother tells her that it is highly likely that she will die in childbirth, So Cora begins writing letters to her unborn child who she dubs Esme, as an attempt to leave her child some memory of the mother she never had. The book is not only about the baby though, it also includes the story of how Cora's whirlwind relationship with Esme's father Ray rose and fell and how Cora came to care for her friend William who was dying of AIDS. But the most bizarre part of the book is when pregnant Cora and her wacky mother kidnap Cora's alzheimers striken Grandfather in an attemot to bring him back to his home town. All throughout the story interesting charachters are popping up like Cora's writing partner and partner in crime Bud

Rating:
Summary: Laugh Out Loud Funny
Review: Definitely read this with a friend in the room. (One who doesn't mind being interrupted while you read aloud from every other page.)
This book is full of the type of wit that I wish I possessed.
Not for people who like a very straight-foward plot. It is a bit overpowered by the prose, but with prose like this who cares? I reached the end and immediately wanted to either start over or invite Fisher to lunch.
Fisher has scored another hit.

Rating:
Summary: Laugh Out Loud Funny
Review: Definitely read this with a friend in the room. (One who doesn't mind being interrupted while you read aloud from every other page.)
This book is full of the type of wit that I wish I possessed.
Not for people who like a very straight-foward plot. It is a bit overpowered by the prose, but with prose like this who cares? I reached the end and immediately wanted to either start over or invite Fisher to lunch.
Fisher has scored another hit.

Rating:
Summary: I THOUGHT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY?
Review: I bought this book because it was advertised as being hilariously funny. In a way, I guess it was. It was so stupid, it was hilariously funny. The characters were cardboard cliches, the dialogue so dumb I couldn't believe anyone could write so badly and the plot non-existent. Had I read, "Cora reached for her moisturizer," one more time I would have assumed that Cora had slithered away in an oil slick! I thought books were supposed to have a point--this happens, which leads to this, then this, etc., etc. But this book just meanders, changing directions more times than Dodge 'Em cars. And where is the humor? My five year old niece has written funnier things than this! I think, but am not sure, of course, that the book is highly autobiographical--a mistake, of course, since most of us have lives no one cares to read about--Carrie Fisher included. If you're looking for something amusing, warm and funny, stay away from this book. If you want something to put you to sleep at night, this might do it.

Rating:
Summary: intriguing characters but so self-indulgent
Review: I found myself skimming this book for the good bits - the ones that are witty or where things actually happen. But about two thirds of it are just tedious wallowing in intelligent but pointless musings. Some fierce editing would have made it an enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: Carrie, you can do better!
Review: I really like Carrie Fisher. She grew up in the highly artificial environment of Hollywood with famous parents and yet has a compelling down-to-earthness that I admire. In interviews, she sounds like a very bright woman full of self-deprecating wit. Both "Surrender the Pink" and "Postcards from the Edge" sounded a lot like Ms. Fisher herself, to good effect. Yes, her characters don't live like the rest of us. In fact, most of us probably wouldn't want to live their lives, even if those lives are easier in material ways.

So, I'm convinced she was having a bad week or month when she wrote "Delusions of Grandma." Instead of the madcap, witty work of her other books, this one tries too hard. Ray, the protagonist's boyfriend, hangs around waiting for her to become less self-indulgent and self-obsessed and finally gives up. We feel for him, probably more than for her. She knows she is self-obsessed but can't seem to stop herself. Almost anyone has a habit they can't seem to break -- eating, alcohol, etc., etc.-- but when the habit is ALWAYS considering yourself and your whims first, it's really hard for other folks to have sympathy.

I love Ms. Fisher's other books. I think she has now thoroughly mined her own life for material. Maybe she could hire a research assistant to bring her information about something else, so she could apply her formidable wit to a fresh situation?

Rating:
Summary: one of the funniest books I have ever read
Review: This book has it all, writerly obsession, tragedy, and comedy by the bucketloads. The "Grandma's" scary costume ride is priceless.

Rating:
Summary: one of the funniest books I have ever read
Review: This book has it all, writerly obsession, tragedy, and comedy by the bucketloads. The "Grandma's" scary costume ride is priceless.