The Princess Diarist
2016
- star wars (motion picture)
- humor
- form
- bipolar disorder
- american authors
- mood disorders
- personal memoirs
- actors
- self-help
- biography & autobiography
The story
In 1976, Carrie Fisher was a teenager filming a movie, with an all-consuming crush on her costar. And it just happened to become one of the most famous films of all time -- the first Star wars movie. When she recently discovered the journals she had kept, she found them full of plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. In revisiting her diaries, Fisher ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity as well as the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty whose lofty status has ultimately been surpassed by her own outer-space royalty.
What it’s like
Wry, candid and warm, with the texture of a handwritten diary opened decades later: a teenager's breathless, misspelled-feeling entries set against an adult's dry, self-deprecating commentary. The voice is conversational and quick, full of sharp one-liners and sudden tenderness, so it reads like being told a story across a kitchen table by someone who has stopped being embarrassed by her younger self. Chapters move in brisk, lively beats, the mood shifting from giddy to rueful to unexpectedly raw, and the book's undercurrent is a frank look at a mind that runs hot and cold, with bipolar disorder and the strangeness of fame handled with humour rather than gloom. Vibe: bittersweet, funny, intimate, a little bruised. It suits a rainy Sunday, a long train ride, or a late-night read when you want company rather than plot. Expect references to romance and crushes, a few frank passages about drugs and relationships, and no violence. For readers who enjoy celebrity memoir with real self-awareness, Hollywood nostalgia, and writing that is funny about pain.
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