The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jacket Blurb: The last book from beloved Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher, The Princess Diarist is an 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 Wars movie.
When Carrie Fisher 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. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

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. 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 one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.

Read for March 2021 book group. Read as an audio book. Book is narrated by Carrie Fisher.

I'll admit, I had some doubts about this one, nothing that I could put my finger on now, but...there it is. I went in with some trepidation. And much to my delight, I enjoyed this a lot.

This was a fascinating look back at a series that *I* grew up with - Star Wars has been with me my entire life. So this little snippet from Carrie Fisher, this look at being part of the beginning when it was no more than a fantasy-scifi film with a bunch of unknown actors and directors to the Disney franchise it is today, is rather fascinating.

Ms. Fisher thankfully starts before Star Wars, touching on her mother, growing up "in the business", and then, as many teens do, trying their best to get as far away from "home" as possible. She goes into auditioning for the film, being offered the role, and aspects of filming. Ms. Fisher goes rather in-depth (I thought) with her affair with Harrison Ford before wrapping up the fervor that came after the film and the cross-country promotions that followed.

For the bit regarding the affair, I have mixed thoughts: on one hand I thought this part when on much too long. It seemed like half the book was focused on her (non)relationship during filming. On the other hand, the excerpts from the Diary were probably some of the best stream of consciousness writing I have ever read. For a young nineteen year old, thrust into the world of film on a male dominated set, "poetic" doesn't quite capture her words, thoughts eloquently enough.

Mostly, I would have preferred a bit less of Mr. Ford, and a bit more of what it was like to work with everyone else.

But it is what it is, and alas, Ms. Fisher has moved on. The bit she did leave though? Witty, laugh out loud, reflective, moving, fascinating, historical, and well worth reading.

Recommended if you grew up with or enjoyed the original Star Wars (now dubbed 4, 5 and 6).


View all my reviews