Review - The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Genre: Autobiography 

Age Group: Adults

Published - November (2016)

Audiobook - 5 hours 10 minutes

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Rating: 4/5

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. 

Listening to this audiobook was incredibly emotional for me which I did not expect going in. The memoir itself is very interesting and full of anecdotes about Fisher's time on set before, during, and after she was cast in the Star Wars flims. She also covers her affair with Harrison Ford and her experience/struggle being Leia since the film's production. Because the audiobook is read by the author, her inflection made the writing a lot easier to understand. I can imagine some of the stories would not come across as well in text as they did when Carrie Fisher told them. 

Even though the book was incredibly funny, Fisher touches on many dark points in her life as well. Her struggles with drugs, alcohol, anxiety, and growing up in Hollywood are all a part of this story and she reflects on most of it with humor. However, these sections were difficult to listen to knowing Fisher (and her mother who she mentions often in this book) has since passed away. As I mentioned at the beginning this was incredibly emotional and I cried a few times as I listened to it.

Carrie Fisher's daughter. Billie Lourd, reads the journal entries from which this book sprang into life which was rather haunting. I'll admit it put me in strange head space and I was completely submerged in this book when I was listening to it. It was a strange experience listening to Fisher relate her personal life in her own voice six months after her death. Even so I would highly recommend the audiobook and I will be reading more of Fisher's books in the future.