Review of "Delusions of Grandma," by Carrie Fisher

 Review of

Delusions of Grandma, by Carrie Fisher, ISBN 0671732277

Five out of five stars

Dark at times, funny at times, sometimes simultaneously

 In this book, Carrie Fisher demonstrates her tremendous skills as a writer. Her prose can cause you to read it, stop and back up and then read it again slowly. She takes metaphors and turns them into clear statements of description.

 A case in point appears on the bottom of page 160. “She had all the wattage and warmth of her electric mother, but she’d been born with a broken dimmer. “ The reference to electric lights in reference to an inability to turn off the dynamic aspects of her personality is easily understood. Even by people that do not understand the principles of electricity.

 The main character is a woman named Cora; she is a talented screen(re)writer that is generally partnered with a man named Bud. While he is also a talented writer, Bud is bipolar, so generally swoops up and down on an emotional roller coaster. Her dear friend William was stricken with AIDS and has recently died. The turmoil has helped lead to the termination of Cora’s romance with Ray. The situation is then further complicated by the realization that Cora is pregnant. The prospect of parenthood finds her adopting a bipolar type of mentality, where she bounces between flight or fight.

 Her mother Viv is supportive yet puts forward a wild scheme to kidnap her Alzheimer’s stricken father from a nursing home and take him back to the place of his birth in Texas. It is clear from this brief description that Cora’s life is fully loaded with major action events. Fisher writes about it all using a style that sometimes has you confused when reading a sentence, but only until you read the last words.

 Few books are as packed with life challenges as this one and even fewer are constructed from such complete, and descriptive sentences.

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