The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Series: N/A
Published by Blue Rider Press on October 18, 2016
Genres: Autobiography, Memoir
Pages: 240 : Hardcover edition
Source: Checked out from my local library
Add to Goodreads
The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Warsmovie.
When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved—plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a (sort-of) regular teenager.
With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time—and what developed behind the scenes. And today, as she reprises her most iconic role for the latest Star Wars trilogy, Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.
I always find that reviewing autobiographies and memoirs is really difficult. How do you critique someone’s life and say “oh that’s badly written” or “I wanted more of [insert thing you wanted more of here]”. It’s their life, they’re going to tell it anyway that they want.
Nevertheless, this was a really enjoyable read. I would’ve read it all in one sitting had it not been for mundane life things that got in the way like eating and sleeping. I loved the honesty that seemed to pour forth from Fisher’s writing and the sassy way she had (and still has) of just telling things like they are.
Why didn’t I give it five out of five stars then and resorted to four? The whole thing left me feeling sad. Here’s this young girl, thrust into this movie where she feels she doesn’t belong or that the whole thing’s been a mistake, having an affair with a much older and very much married, man, constantly trying to prove herself to be the best for him…it was just kind of depressing.
Was there a breakthrough moment where Carrie Fisher said, “Yes! I am my own woman now! Screw men!” Not in so many words, but there’s a subtly and hint at it that is there and that can’t be denied. When reading the portions of her journal, then reading her thoughts now, you can clearly see the differences between the “Then Carrie” and “Now Carrie” which I loved.
Fellow ladies, let’s just take up our Princess Leia buns, grab some blasters, and swear off men all together. We’d be better Princesses without them anyway.