Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19121 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

When can we have the full memoir?
What a life Carrie Fisher has had! Unfortunately we don't get enough of it in this slim memoir, adapted from her one-woman show. I got the feeling that the book was only an edited transcript with added photos, and not adding much to the show's material. Maybe it was too soon after her ECT which has played tricks with her memory - if she were to write a full memoir a few years hence, it would surely be a different proposition. Short as it was, I did enjoy it though. You definitely feel sisterly towards her and want her to be your friend after reading it.

Witty and entertaining
This is a short book, don't expect an encycopedia length biography to send you to sleep on the train, and at times it does read a little like the transcript of her one woman show, which it is based on, rather than a book in its own right. But, that said, Carrie's writing is incisive and funny and if only half the stories were true she would have had an astounding life. I most enjoyed the anecdotes about her mother, star of one of my favourite movies ever, and the way in which she clearly gets battier as she ages. Their altercations may have hollywood granduer as their backdrop but, in essence, are little different than the frustrations that come with loving someone and find them intensely irritating in the same moment. I love Carrie Fisher and really enjoyed reading this, even if I finished it in an afternoon rather than the longer book I expected.

Think you know Carrie Fisher? Think again!
My own knowledge of Carrie Fisher was distinctly limited before reading this book. The sum total of my knowledge of her consisted of: her work on the Star Wars movies, the psychopathic `woman scorned' in The Blues Brothers, her support in When Harry Met Sally and her cameos in Scream 3 and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. I was aware that she had become a screenwriter and novelist and had written the novel Postcards From The Edge, later adapted into the movie of the same name starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLlaine. Other than that I knew next to nothing. I had of course seen her in a number of TV interviews where she seemed like a really nice lady, but didn't really know much about her. I was aware of course that she had come to resent George Lucas a little after he franchised out her likeness so that she would occasionally find herself on sale as a shampoo bottle and a PEZ Dispenser. The interviews I have seen of her have mainly seen her asked about Star Wars - most recently when Justin Lee-Collins climbed over her garden wall in Channel 4's Bring Back Star Wars. The movie database imdb.com has a wealth of information about her and reveals that she does actually have a very detailed and expansive CV, far beyond a few Star Wars pictures. But I had no idea she has had such a bizarre, and indeed, traumatic life.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's Carrie Fisher was a child of Hollywood; the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and crooner Eddie Fisher, Carrie grew up believing it was normal to see your parents on television and to hang around on movie sets. Her issues seemed to start early on when her father left her mother to have an affair with, and later marry, Elizabeth Taylor. He then never really came back into her life. This appears to have given birth to feelings of worthlessness. Carrie summarises other parts of her life which also couldn't have helped the psyche of a young girl. The pressure of global stardom playing Princess Leia, the drugs, the alcohol and the frequent visits to the emergency room having her stomach pumped. Good god! I never knew this! There was also a bizarre and much publicised occasion when a gay best friend of hers passed away one night whilst sharing a bed with her! When explained it all seems perfectly in order and just unfortunate. Though at the time it caused a feeding frenzy in the entertainment press that caused further problems to her mental health. That and the frequent failed relationships (one to singer Paul Simon and another to a man who later became gay), may have also lead to her depression. Matters appear to have gotten so bad that she, relatively recently, underwent ECT (Electro-Convulsive Therapy) which apparently involves being attached to electrodes and having a current passed through you which jolts your body and apparently can help you forget painful memories. My God! She had `that' done to herself?! Only in America! Sometimes you do feel like just grabbing her by the shoulders to try and shake some sense into her. But at other times you do feel a little bit sorry for her, and hope to god that she gets a better boyfriend, and gets one soon!

She is no doubt a talented writer and this relatively short memoir (only 150 pages) barely scratches the surface. Many of her fans have of course requested a more detailed memoir - one that places events in a more chronological order. Hopefully Carrie will get around to this. The one fault with Wishful Drinking is that, because it is based on her `one-person' stage show that she has toured with, the writing at times comes across as a bit of a ramble with seemingly unconnected events overlapping each other as she blurts out one hilarious anecdote after the other - with no real structure to the book. You could also pick on the double-line spacing and the medium-sized font, which does seem to serve as a way of stretching out a very short piece into a page total which would barely have reached the 150 otherwise. The Hardback however does look great and the cover art is terrific. Carrie Fisher is a great writer and this is very entertaining. Just be prepared to finish it within a week. Some of the reviewers here claim to have finished it in one day! Good luck Carrie and I hope things work out better for you in middle age! And be sure to give us the complete memoir while you're at it!