Book Review The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s 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 Warsmovie.
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. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.
The Princess Diarist is one of Carrie Fisher’s last gifts to fans and friends. Her untimely demise in 2016 left fans across the world drowning in sorrow over the loss of the voice, the force and feminist that was Carrie Fisher. She is one that we will forever be intrigued by. Both the power of her presence and now her absence will be felt with generations to come. Carrie Fisher, thank you for the unapologetic force of nature that was you, and your life.
True to character, it is only fitting that Fisher’s final book was one the would have everyone talking. Oh, the scandals! This collection of journals is replicated from the original handwritten journals Fisher kept whilst filming the first film in the Star Wars franchise. She was astonished to see what her diary had preserved—love poems, musings of youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that as a grown woman she no longer identified with. The comparison between Fisher in 1977, to 2016 is uncanny. In some ways she is entirely different, others the same.
Reading this made me realize that often the artists of the world never really fit in, even where you’re a Hollywood celebrity. That feeling of, ‘what am I doing?’ never goes away. Reading these words from Carrie Fisher in 2016 were oddly comforting.
Fisher is known for both heartwrenching and hilarious books, and this one touches a bit of both. We learn some scandal in the world of Star Wars and we see a young girl seeking her place in the world. She also ponders the joys and insanity of the celebrity world in a way that is had to properly articulate. Fisher certainly had a way with words. She hooked you in and pulled you by your heartstrings.
It was interesting to read more about her youth as ‘Hollywood Royalty’ only to be surpassed by her own future space royalty. This is an extremely quotable collection, pieces to make you smile when you feel like doing anything but, and of course, pieces to make you laugh until you cry.
The introspection into her life is so candid and authentic. I have never read anything like this. This is a book I will always hold dear for it’s raw emotions. It is a woman baring her soul to the world through the written word.
Perhaps, this book was meant to be her elegy to fans.
Lisa Loves Words 