Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wishful Drinking
Book Review: "WIshful Drinking"
Summary: 5 Stars
Carrie Fisher is so very honest concerning her life and the drama throughout it all...and I can identify with many aspects of her book!
It's endearing, funny, and yet sobering.
Carrie has so much to give...a personality plus!
It shines throughtout this read which I highly recommend.
Pam Steadman
Book Review: 1/2 hour sitcom....
Summary: 3 Stars
A funny book. While I was expecting a two-hour movie it turns out to be a half-hour sitcom. Large type, double spaced, photo fillers. Not much there, glad I got it at the library! Enjoyable sitcom!Book Review: 3.5 Stars.... entertaining yet not fully satisfying
Summary: 4 Stars
Carrie Fisher is of course an icon, playing Princess Leila in the original Star Wars movie, and later becoming a genuine writer (in particular with "Postcards from the Edge" (which in turn was made into a successful movie with Meryl Streep). Yet at the same time, she went through some well-documented troubled times, the public figure that she is. Even though earlier works (like the afore-mentioned "Postcards From the Edge") drew on her real-life experiences, she had never written a proper memoir. Until now.
In "Wishful Drinking" (163 pages), Carrie Fisher brings us what it's like to grow up as an ultimate Hollywood child (being the daughter of 1950-60s icons Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds). The book starts off with "Hi I'm Carrie Fisher and I'm and alcoholic, and this is a true story". Early on in the book, Carrie warns us that "my reality has been formed by Hollywood's version of reality. As a child, I thought that Father Knows Best was real and that my life was fake." while at the same time informing us that her memories have been "reintroduced by electroconvulsive therapy... at the ripe old age of fifty-two", wow. That said, the entire undertone of the book is quite funny and entertaining (more on that later), and as such the pages fly by. Carrie drops names of other famous people on the fly (because that is how she meets).
Yet what I find a bit puzzling, and in the end disappointing, is how little she relates to us on her addictions and how she's been able to overcome them. At 163 pages, it all seems too brushed at the edges, without going into any deeper of it. This may be explained by the fact that this book is apparently based on Carrie's stand-up act of all this (also under the "Wishful Drinking" name) that eventually lead to this book. But not having seen the stand-up act (which I imagine is intended to be mostly just funny, and which I have not seen), the book doesn't leave me satisfied as to me there are too many aspects of her addictions, and her struggle to overcome them, are not addressed.
Book Review: A Memoir on Spin Cycle
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, my, my. When Carrie offers you a tour through her manic-depressive illness, expect a brisk ride! She begins by telling you that she chose electroconvulsive therapy as a last resort at age 52, after drugs and alcohol and flawed relationships failed to ease--and surely added to--her profound depression ("when weighing the choice between ECT or DOA, the decision is easy to make"). She says she wrote this book in part because her memory was wrenched from her by this treatment, and she needed to reacquaint herself with herself. But who exactly IS this bawdy broad with her pungent humor and skewering disclosures of privacy?
Virtually barren of self-pity, Carrie tells you her story in unsparing terms. Mom Debbie Reynolds is "inextinguishable and amazing," having among other things helped her to confront adolescence with offers of pot and a vibrator. Dad Eddie Fisher, who famously abandoned his family for Elizabeth Taylor, is acknowledged with "thanks for the highest grade of absence available on earth." As her shortest husband, Paul Simon is told not to stand next to her at parties out of fear that they would be mistaken as a pair of salt-and-pepper shakers. Then there is George W. Bush, who early in his political career found it funny to fart in a room about to host VIPs, before sprinting for the door to escape the miasma. And let's not forget her gay Republican buddy who makes the mistake of dying next to Carrie in bed, or her brother Todd (named after Mike Todd, incidentally) who shoots himself in the leg despite being the "hogger of all the sanity available in our freak family." Her list of characters goes on and on. Moreover, who else can claim that she became Princess Leia at age 19, later to be immortalized as a Pez dispenser, or then to become a best-selling author and well-known actress? Ain't much normal about this girl's life, and she speeds up and bounces around while telling her tale--that's the manic part. But Carrie simmers with a wit and intelligence that make you want to buckle up and board her roller coaster. Five stars and a quick read in only 163 pages with lots of pictures.
Book Review: A celebrity's dysfunctional history, sad and bittersweet.
Summary: 2 Stars
Carrie Fisher reveals her whole life in this book. Her addictions, her sobriety, how her mom dealt with these behaviors, and a few comments about her absent, narcissistic self-absorbed dad.
But these stories are only funny if you care about the celebrity carrie fisher. If you don't really care about Ms. Fisher, then this autobiography is dry. I bought this because i thought it would focus on her attempts at sobriety, in the realm of "Drinking: A Love Story. Her addiction struggles are discussed, but it's not the focus of the book.
The book is mainly about her hollywood upbringing, career and the craziness of it all. Ms. Fisher has had some major life crises (elctroshock therapy, a divorce because her husband and father to her on decides he's gay).
She also discusses the struggles of her mom Debbie Reynolds, who lost two fortunes to her 2nd and 3rd husbands.
In the end, she shows that wealth doesn't bring happiness. I have a tendency to envy wealthy celebrities. But this book helped me understand my envy is misplaced.
Also, there is also a LOT of re-cycled material from her other book "The Best Awful". There are whole paragraphs that are word for word. Carrie Fisher retells the same story over and over again, about the poor little rich girl. If it was so tragic, so awful, why does she parade it around for decades? It's because these celebrity cry-fests are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The book is a followup to her one-woman show of the same title. probably the same jokes too. The humor didn't work too well for me in the audiobook. But i doubt i would have laughed if i was at the show either. There is a deep sadness to the stories of her life.