Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of ) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.
Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty -- Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.
Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success. Entertainment Weekly declared it "drolly hysterical" and the Los Angeles Times called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best -- revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor.
This book was so sarcastic and funny in the way she describes her life and the lives of other hollywood weirdos.
Raised as a hollywood icon daughter she has a hard row to hoe, and she does it well.
From her always absent father to her kooky mother, she tales little snippits of her life that makes out crazy lives seem so sane.
This book does have some language so beware. But it is hilarious.
Wishful Drinking is a no-holes-barred tell-all tale about growing up in a famous, totally dysfunctional home, authored by one of the funniest actresses in Hollywood.
Carrie Fisher, best known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in Star Wars, is the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. As she is fond of saying, she is the "...product of Hollywood inbreeding. When two celebrities mate, something like me is the result." Fisher recounts her early life with a loving, albeit celebrity mother who was often away filming a movie, and an absentee father who was more interested in his latest girlfriend. Fisher isn't shy about exposing her father's infidelities. When discussing how he left her mother for Elizabeth Taylor, the author describes her father rushing to Taylor's side as "He dried her eyes with his handkerchief, then he consoled her with flowers, and he ultimately consoled her with his..." (fill in the blank).
It is clear that the Fisher household was an unusual atmosphere in which to grow up, but the author makes no apologies and asks for no sympathy. Fisher is full of love and admiration for her mother while also pointing out Debbie Reynolds' eccentricities with quotes such as "...this from a woman who when asked for dating advice says, `For what age?'"
Fisher is quite open about her struggles with alcoholism, drugs and bipolar disorder, but this is not a dull, depressing look at the life of a rich celebrity as Fisher inserts plenty of humor into her telling of the events. "I mean, let's face it, my most creative achievement at that time was having unnecessary gum surgery just for the morphine. (I don't think you can use the word "just" and "morphine" anywhere near each other.)"
At 156 pages, with plenty of pictures throughout, and written in a conversational style reminiscent of Fisher's stage show, Wishful Drinking is a quick read. There are plenty of laughs as Fisher is at her best telling her life story. It would have been nice to tone down the overuse of four letter words and some of the references are a bit crude.
Quill says: Overall a fun, eye opening look at the life of Carrie Fisher.
Written in her own vernacular, this book moves right along. Some funny and somewhat raunchy sentences...like talking to a friend. Not too wordy. Give it a shot.
