2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 book clear-up, I'm afraid. I'm being particularly picky about the autobiographies and memoirs I own (and in the case of Carrie Fisher, some of the reason for my clearing is my no longer being comfortable owning anything relating to 'Star Wars'). I don't like everything Fisher wrote, but 'The Princess Diarist' is still a good book, made more heartrendering by the fact that it's her final one.
I also wonder how different it might have been if it had been published after Me Too.
RIP Carrie Fisher, you will always be missed.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
Carrie Fisher's last book, and it is yet another brilliant, honest, funny, witty, charming, compulsively-readable little memoir to laugh and cry over in a day.
Those thoughtless, vitriolic, borderline sexist negative reviews need not apply here, nor are they welcome.
While I am not a huge 'Star Wars' fan - I like the franchise (far, far away more than its fanbase, but that's another story), and I admire Carrie herself more than the character that made her an icon, Princess Leia - I always love to see and hear the behind-the-scenes true stories of films. And in 'The Princess Diarist', written around the period of filming 'The Force Awakens', Carrie exclusively talks about her time in acting, auditioning for and filming 'Star Wars', at the innocent age of nineteen, and the impact it has had on her entire life.
She's open and blunt about her feelings concerning the fans, and the people she's worked with in making her a star (predominantly she's consumed in the making of her silly hairstyle). And in turning her into a *ahem* sex symbol. For someone who was barely an adult when 'Star Wars' exploded onto the world, unprecedented fame comes with greater prices than not. But Carrie, not to be completely jaded, is mostly grateful and appreciative about it all, and who knows where she might've ended up if she hadn't been an intergalactic princess.
I guess you do have to look back on some things and laugh, and get used to signing millions of autographs and listening to fans' endless gushing tales about when and how they founded 'Star Wars', and that Princess Leia inspired them.
Carrie Fisher would become as much a cultural treasure as the film that launched her into that orbit.
Oh, and she also reveals the "scandalous" affair she had with Harrison Ford during the filming of 'Star Wars'; a shipping she calls "Carrison". I'm not sure she was aware of the weight and significance of a married man nearly twice her age taking advantage of her, as a naïve and vulnerable up-and-coming actress. Plus he had purportedly "saved" her from an all-male film crew at George Lucas's surprise birthday party, who wanted to get her drunk and were about to take her outside. A sure sign that the book was published before #MeToo. But Carrie wasn't stupid even then (she grew up as Hollywood royalty, after all), and admits to initially seeking an affair with somebody, in London and far away from home, where she could have all the fun and experience she desired.
Her time with Ford is surprisingly the least interesting part of this memoir. That chapter is too long for my taste. However, it contains the very humorous anecdote of Carrie's impression of Ford, which actually made him, the strong, silent, frowny, handsome type, smile and chuckle. Then he distanced himself from her when, through secrets let slip in conversation, he realised she wasn't as experienced sexually, nay promiscuous, as she'd made herself out to be through airs. Thus ends their relationship, or lack thereof. Lose lips sink ships, or screwed up and nonsensical morals and priorities do.
Carrie may not bear Harrison Ford ill will, and I hope she wasn't hurt too badly, but that sounds like a skeevy double standard to me. Is she untouchable or not? Naïve or not? Less likely to cause trouble for him or not? "Acting" older than she is, so she's easy, legal pickings?
Typical Hollywood.
'The Princess Diarist' contains, of course, diary entries from nineteen-year-old Carrie Fisher, that were recently founded and remembered, at the time of filming 'Star Wars', and her Carrison affair. She hardly changed: she was an ambitious and creative writer even back then, as well as exceedingly melancholy; signs of her depression and substance taking were evident. Who knew that she also wrote pretty good poetry? It's great reading material, more mature than what you might expect from a teenager.
How warm, enjoyable and heartbreaking 'The Princess Diarist' is; most potent in the wake of Carrie's sudden death at the end of 2016. It's her story, set free and living, into the world. To be remembered forever. Perfect for fans of her and 'Star Wars'.
Honest, endearing, and friendly or not, you will wish you could have met Carrie Fisher. Her affinity to the stars, in every interpretation imaginable, is infinite as it is beyond reach.
We love you, Carrie. Rest in peace.
'Harrison finished shooting first.' (page 106) - was that intentional? How clever was she.
Final Score: 4/5
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