Surrender the Pink

by Carrie Fisher

A study of metropolitan mating manners by the author of Postcards from the Edge. Dinah Kaufman is attracted to unsuitable men, including her ex-husband, a successful playwright with whom she continues to be obsessed. And she has a tendency to merge real life and the soap opera scripts she writes.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Audiobook, Novels

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Carrie Fisher was an American actress, screenwriter and author, most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy. Fisher was the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. She had one daughter, Billie Lourd (b. 1992).

Her final film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was released on December 15, 2017 and is dedicated to her.

Reviews

[Kasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually read books where the relationship between a man and a woman takes center stage, the horrors that imitate real life are draining and exhausting at times, only making me feel lucky that I don't have to deal with such things. Luckily this book was so much more than that, it was a lot of fun to read and the ending didn't suck, I loved it! After reading "Wishful Drinking" and "Postcards from the Edge" I was ready for one more Carrie Fisher book before I switched themes for a while, this is referred to as a romance but it's got plenty of comedy and non stop male-female conflicts that were anything but romantic.

Dinah Kaufman is a young screenwriter who only wants what she can't have. When she's married to Rudy Gendler conflicts and lack of sweetness and proper communication take a toll on them until they break up. Once he's gone and in another woman's arms there's nothing sweeter to Dinah then the thought of them back together, she suffers from mood swings and unsatisfying flings then goes dry for so long that hunting her ex-husband down in the Hamptons where he's staying with his new blond girlfriend for the summer seems like a great idea. Her career is a success mostly because she's using her dysfunctional relationships as a guide for her fictional characters that reflect her soap opera like life. Dinah is an endearing person, her habit of buying band aids to cover her thumbs so she wont pick at her skin is real albeit whacky, the funny ways in which she tires to become more domesticated (cooking is not one of her virtues) and her search for happiness are all splendidly written and Fisher includes all of Dinah's brainstorming into the story giving her depth. I felt that Dinah sounded little older than her age (twenty eight) but perhaps going through the hellish relationships that she chose to pursue robbed her of her innocence and youthfulness. Once she makes up her mind and goes for the guy, unforeseen obstacles make her question her true heart's desire. The ending was a real surprise ( in a good way) which was nice for a change, lately any book I picked fell apart at the end, but this was solid.

The book was easy to get through once I got used to the constant second guessing that Dinah was doing, I actually liked it best out of all of Carrie's books and the dialogue was priceless, I wanted to bookmark all the fun quotes but at the end there were too many, it's something I would love to read again in the future to make sure I get all of it absorbed because Carrie Fisher has a lot on her mind and writing seems to be a form of therapy for her, I hope she never stops.

[Jenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I love Carrie Fisher, I did not love this book. Like not at all. I had to force myself to finish it.

Dinah Kaufman is a mess - at least in the romance department. She has a great job, has friends, but always falls for the wrong man. In Surrender the Pink, Dinah is super focused on one man - the man she thinks got away. This relationship was extremely toxic to the point that Dinah followed him to the Hamptons to spy on him with his new girlfriend. Talk about cringe. Needless to say, I did not like Dinah.

I also wasn't a fan of the writing style. To me, it seemed all over and jumbled. There were long periods of time where nothing happened then everything would be piled into one chapter only to go back to nothing. There was slut shamming, cheating, humor that really missed it's mark. Maybe it's because I read this book way past it's release date, but I really could not get into it.

I still want to read her autobiography, but I think I will steer clear of her fiction for now.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Witty, astute and poignant. Classic Carrie Fisher you could say. Full review to follow.

[Emma Doherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the first third uproariously funny, however the tone is not enough to atone for the plot- which flips constantly between yawn-inducing and a string of increasingly embarrassing situations that make you squirm as a reader. It makes me feel mean saying this because the main character is based primarily on Carrie Fisher herself, whom I love, but god! Interior monologues are one thing, the rampant narcissism of a character like Dinah is entirely another.

[Ubalstecha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dinah Kaufman writes for a soap opera. Her scripts tend to be retellings of her love life, where she re-examines the conversations, events and fights that she has had with her lovers. Most significant among these is Rudy Gendler, noted playwright with whom Dinah had a lengthy relationship. (She calls him her ex-husband.)

Dinah has dumped him, and thought she has moved on, but when she finds out that Rudy has found another to love, someone who is a complete opposite of her, she becomes obsessed with getting him back. What follows is a psychotic, narcissistic trip by Dinah to stalk Rudy and his new love in the Hamptons. She runs into Rudy's sister, hides in Rudy's boot closet to spy on them and contrives to run into them at fireworks display. All the while, Dinah compares herself to the new woman in Rudy's life, wondering where she went wrong.

Author Fisher can be accused of drawing from her own life for these characters especially the absentee father of our main character, but there are some new creations here. Still the main character is definitely the neurotic creation similar to the main character in Postcards from the Edge.

A nice fluffy diversion.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going back and re-reading Carrie's books for the first time in a decade. It's now really hard to seperate the "novel" from the non-fiction. This one is a lot more straight story than Postcards, though it does have a few flashbacks. One of which is now OBVIOUSLY! Carrie sleeping with Harrison Ford!!!! Which led me to have many OMG moments and general extra hilarity. I mean Carrie was always open with the fact that this book was about her relationship with Paul Simon. (who unfortuantely comes off quite sexist reading it now). But the fact that she snuck in her affair with Harrison (aka Henry aka Henry Jones Junior) many, many years before Princess Diarist is fantastic in a way only Carrie Fisher could manage to pull off!

Also she had reference to Pam and Roy, which was interesting as she hadn't actually figured out Pam and Roy when she was dating Paul Simon, plus she used a lot of drugs when they were together and Dinah didn't. So it was definitely more novel than non-fiction. But it was still a very good insight into how dating Carrie Fisher worked, or didn't work. Definitely one I'd recommend.

[Sarah]

I read this in the 1990s or early 2000s and thought the dialogue about gender was fantastic and illuminating. After Fisher passed away in 2016, I re-read several of her novels and all of her memoirs (some for the first time). For some reason I didn't re-read PINK (which is largely about her marriage to Paul Simon, according to Fisher herself) until 2018, and I still very much enjoyed the clever wordplay. However, it's extremely trippy reading it now, post-Princess Diaries.

Because her affair with Harrison Ford was hiding in plain sight in this book! In her brilliance, she kept it a secret by fictionalizing it in this early novel. But when you read the largely similar scene in Princess Diaries, this time it's not fictionalized.

The telltale line for me was when both men (Henry in PINK and Harrison in PRINCESS, with the same age difference to our heroine) say she has "The eyes of a doe and the balls of a samurai."

It added another layer of poignancy and sadness to this book, for me.

[Andi]

Jeez. Carrie. What a mess of a book you made here.

What I always enjoyed about Carrie's writing is how she makes her characters realistic with problems.

The problem with this character is the relationship is a doomed one, and on top of that, the guy is using the girl as a bounce-and-fuck. I know she was married to him, but honey, no. Don't go chasing after that dick if it's plowing other holes.

Anyway. I stopped when the main character drove out to the Hamptons to stalk him during a writers strike.

Another uncomfortable thing about the book is that I felt a lot of Harrison/Carrie references. Things that clicked now after reading The Princess Diarist.

Read it but it's not as interesting as Poscards from the Edge - even that's a stretch.

[Ahtims · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found it boring from the start. As far as I understand this book deals with a 20 something woman working in the TV industry who is bent upon forming relationships with unsuitable men, mostly father figures. After the relationship bursts, she is fond of contemplating what went wrong, before jumping into similar relationship. I couldnot focus my attention on the book, turning pages was becoming a task. Finally I left it somewhere around the 60th page. I was surprised to see many 4 and 5 star reviews, so maybe it is a good story which just didnot appeal to me.

[Diana Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

204. This felt more like a play or screenplay and deals with relationships...when to let go for the most part. So much of what I know from her other works in relating to her own life comes through in her works and this is not exception. A sad reflection on the author but worth reading.

[Beau North · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, and judging by some of the other reviews, a highly underrated one. Don't go in this expecting a comfortable good time. Dinah is an obsessive, neurotic mess who is as needy as she is hilarious and brilliant. The soap opera and discovery channel-type interludes made me laugh and contextualized this already-biting story as a razor-sharp cautionary tale.

Also, if you're a writer who struggles with dialogue, study Carrie Fisher as much as you can.

[Bram Impens · Rating 1 out of 5]

Een ode aan de heterorelatie, heel innovatief komt prinses Leila niet over. Mijn eigen liefdesleven is nog boeiender dan dit.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book from the library because all the ones I wanted to read were already taken out and scanning the shelves my boyfriend picked out the “Carrie Fisher book”. We just watched Star Wars entirely so I figured I’d give it a shot. The book was extremely sad in the beginning and I really only started to enjoy it on chapter 9 out of 10. The ending made me feel a lot of different things but mostly it showed that people have an impact on you even when they leave. I enjoyed when Dinah stood up for herself and at first I thought the end of the story negated that but after thinking about it I feel that it was the way she needed to come to peace with her past which was a sweet ending.

[Britt Lovelady · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to be mean but this was the worst book I've ever read. The plot was dumb, the characters were dull and unlikeable, and the narrator often went off on a tangent that was difficult to understand. This was not the typical chick-lit that I was expecting and I don't mean that in a good way. I give it an F.

[Jenny T. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was actually more of an "anti-romance" novel following Dinah Kaufman and her doomed relationship with Rudy Gendler. It was a lot of pages exploring the thoughts of Dinah's lovelife. At times the writing also captured Carrie Fisher's mood swings and tangential thoughts. I struggled to get through this book- not sure if I wasn't in the mood or didn't like the main character.

[Ariel Rodriguez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sí, sé que se escribió a inicios de los noventa, pero me pareció excesivo que una mujer tan exitosa como lo era la protagonista se sintiera incompleta durante todo el libro solamente porque no estaba con un hombre; su obsesión por su ex-esposo me pareció demasiado retrógrada... en fin.

[Maya B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...

[KATIE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Underrated as hell.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 3 out of 5]

Romance isn't a genre I delve into all the often.

I shamelessly devour Jennifer Crusie books, but apart from that and the odd classic novel that fits into that genre (here's looking at you, Jane Austen you minx) it isn't something I'm altogether familiar with. I love the humor in romance novels, though. I love the give and take of a well-crafted one and the ridiculous scenarios the heroine inevitably gets into. What I hate is the trope of leaving someone you'e engaged to, the cheating and all. The rewards for terrible behavior and lack of communication...

Luckily, this book didn't offer up any of that. In a lot of ways, this was a bit of an anti-romance novel. A book about getting over, or failing to get over, an ex-husband. The trials and tribulations of letting go. The inevitable destructive behavior that doesn't get rewarded. The strange psychic (?) named Mama who will get colors around your head rather than black. Understand? I didn't either.

This was a funny book, yet one all too real when it comes to failed relationships. The obsessive behavior, the fixations, the failure of others to measure up even when they should. This is the messy, awkward side of relationships that's rarely explored this well and the ways the different sexes deal with it. At times I laughed at loud; at times I cringed and couldn't contain an eyeroll.

Of course, all of this was with Carrie Fisher and her great humor and weird perspective. It's difficult not to enjoy her at the best of times, and even though this book might qualify as the worst of times (c'mon, dealing with an ex is rarely good), man was it funny and fun.

[Julie Bozza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific writer with a sharp clear gaze. There are some truths in here that are bloody painful, but there's some happy stuff, too, which feels just as genuine.

... I might try for something soothing next!

[Noah Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very funny, but clearly a sort of proto-Postcards from the Edge that just hasn't quite mastered this character and how she interacts with the world around her, or how to plot a story around such a distinct personality.

[Debbie]

I give up !

[Ethan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Says some important things at times and can be funny but is also somewhat painful to read and feels far too much like the soap operas that it readily criticises. But maybe that’s the point.

[Twainy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to this book I felt it was a novel set in the author’s life. Well crafted story by an interesting woman about a woman with a dysfunctional love life.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in Carrie’s signature quirky style. So much of her is in this book, based on her relationship with Paul Simon. Witty, wacky, and unapologetic just like Carrie herself. Actual rating: 4.5 ⭐️s

[Graff Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to continue my reading of Carrie Fisher's books. This was slightly odd, for it was semi-autobiographical. I hadn't heard that she had written about it in a fictional setting before. It holds very little to the imagination. As always, she's very forthright.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: A book with your favorite color in the title

[Carly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Carrie Fisher, I love you!!! This was not a memorable book at all.

[no elle]

this is written like its a movie and honestly....that slaps

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading this. Watch for character "Henry," probably Harrison, and "boy in film class" on pg 59 may be Mark, based on descriptions that Carrie later writes in "The Princess Diarist."