When Carrie Fisher died on December 27th I was devastated. When Debbie Reynolds died the following day I immediately purchased The Princess Diarist and moved it to the top of my TBR pile to hold on to just a few more hours of these dynamic women. While Carrie only mentions her mother a few times in her most recent memoir it was nice to crawl back into a time when Fisher and Reynolds were spoken about in the present tense.
“I saw where someone was complaining about how much celebrities charge for autographs at these events, and in our defense someone said, “Well, you know, it may cost that much now, but when she dies it’s really going to be worth a lot.” So my death is worth something to some people. If I had enough pictures signed someone could put out a hit on me.”
Too soon Carrie.
The Princess Diarist is meant to be a snapshot of the brief period in time when it was just Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill working on a film in London being paid scale by a guy from Modesto. A time period when Princess Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were just names on a page and not action figures or Halloween costumes.
The primary motivation behind the release of The Princess Diarist was Fisher discovering her journals from the set of A New Hope. The journal entries are cringe worthy, like most nineteen year old’s journals would be, including a lot of bad poetry.Carrie Fisher uses this memoir to announce to the world she was hopelessly enamored by, and sleeping with, a married Harrison Ford. She was insecure and uncomfortable around him but it was a teenage learning experience she finally felt bold enough to share.
I’m sorry it’s not Mark- it could’ve been. It should’ve been. It might’ve meant something. Maybe not much, but certainly more.
While Carrie is a charming and self deprecating writer this memoir is more “gut punch” than “stroll down memory lane” from a writer who was able to give us just one more gift before leaving the world too soon.
Now my husband and I are watching A New Hope and wishing for a happier New Year.
Oof. I am prepared to love this one when it arrives my way, but I’m thinking that I might go back through Carrie Fisher’s entire oeuvre before I read this one. Thoughts? I’ve only read Shockaholic so far.
You should definitely read all her books (I plan to revisit them myself) but I’d almost recommend this one first! It just focuses on a short time period and it’s about her first foray into fame!
Okay, I think I’ll read this first then, and move on to the others later this year. Thankfully I got it in dead tree format, I don’t think I’d be ready for the audio version.
I also got this when her death was announced, but I don’t actually think I’m ready to listen to it yet. My reading for 2017 will absolutely involve a lot of Carrie Fisher’s writing, though, either in print or in audio book format. I know she was a fiercely intelligent, talented and extremely funny woman, but I’ve never actually read anything she wrote (except quotes of it on the internet).