A remarkably candid biography of the remarkably candid–and brilliant–Carrie Fisher In her 2008 bestseller, Girls Like Us, Sheila Weller–with heart and a profound feeling for the times–gave us a surprisingly intimate portrait of three icons: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. Now she turns her focus to one of the most loved, brilliant, and iconoclastic women of our time: the actress, … of our time: the actress, writer, daughter, and mother Carrie Fisher.
Weller traces Fisher’s life from her Hollywood royalty roots to her untimely and shattering death after Christmas 2016. Her mother was the spunky and adorable Debbie Reynolds; her father, the heartthrob crooner Eddie Fisher. When Eddie ran off with Elizabeth Taylor, the scandal thrust little Carrie Frances into a bizarre spotlight, gifting her with an irony and an aplomb that would resonate throughout her life.
We follow Fisher’s acting career, from her debut in Shampoo, the hit movie that defined mid-1970s Hollywood, to her seizing of the plum female role in Star Wars, which catapulted her to instant fame. We explore her long, complex relationship with Paul Simon and her relatively peaceful years with the talent agent Bryan Lourd. We witness her startling leap–on the heels of a near-fatal overdose–from actress to highly praised, bestselling author, the Dorothy Parker of her place and time.
Weller sympathetically reveals the conditions that Fisher lived with: serious bipolar disorder and an inherited drug addiction. Still, despite crises and overdoses, her life’s work–as an actor, a novelist and memoirist, a script doctor, a hostess, and a friend–was prodigious and unique. As one of her best friends said, “I almost wish the expression ‘one of a kind’ didn’t exist, because it applies to Carrie in a deeper way than it applies to others.”
Sourced by friends, colleagues, and witnesses to all stages of Fisher’s life, Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge is an empathic and even-handed portrayal of a woman who–as Princess Leia, but mostly as herself–was a feminist heroine, one who died at a time when we need her blazing, healing honesty more than ever.
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Sheila Weller writes a beautiful and intimate portrait of a Hollywood Icon, the one and only Carrie Fisher. Born to Hollywood Royalty, father Eddie Fisher and mother Debbie Reynolds, Fisher from the time of her birth, lived a life so public filled with scandal and drama, and yet have been admired and adored by people all over the world. Most of us know her as Princess Lea with her hair buns, and as the fearless Resistance leader who would later be Han Solo’s love interest in both on screen and off screen with Harrison Ford.
Fisher was known to speak about her addiction and helped de stigmatize mental illness through her interviews and multiple books she has written about her bipolar disorder. Her sudden death due to cardiac arrest during her flight from London to Los Angeles was only made more shocking by the sudden death of her mother the following day.
The beauty of this biography is that we see Fisher through the facets of her being a woman who was fierce and advocated for mental health, a generous and sincere friend, a caring and loving daughter, and a talented actress and writer. This biography is exhaustively written with rich details and information on her life. Though this is an unauthorized biography, I felt that this is something I would highly recommend, and well worth the read. Weller gave it all the respect it deserved, and I was moved by the stories presented on Fisher’s life on the Edge.
Highly Recommend and will not disappoint!!!
This book is so good. By the end, I felt like I had lost a friend. Such is its power and the power of Carrie Fisher: Hollywood royalty, intergalactic princess, honest and sassy and smart and straight talking with a vulnerability that breaks your heart. I hope the whole world reads Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge, and that everyone follows Carrie Fisher’s lead ― don’t bullshit, tell the truth no matter how painful, and ‘love so big, it should have a capital and its own currency.’
Sheila Weller has always treated the brilliant, complicated women she writes about with the seriousness, curiosity, and care they deserve. I am so grateful that she has turned her lens on Carrie Fisher, a performer and writer who has meant so much, to so many people, for so many varied reasons. Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge considers Fisher in full, with attention to the love, pain, illness, advocacy, humor, generosity, and contradiction that made her so remarkable. I am so sad that Carrie Fisher is dead. I am so glad that Sheila Weller has given the story of her life the space and attention it deserves.
Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge grabs you with its winning combination of unflinching honesty and graceful empathy. Sheila Weller, drawing on her deep understanding of the beauty and trauma of Hollywood, has written a stunning biography of Carrie Fisher.
Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge is a can’t-put-it-down, fascinating, deeply compassionate biography of the one and only, indomitable Carrie Fisher. Weller gets at the heart of the feisty, smart, and sometimes conflicted Fisher, who fought the siren song of addiction and unthinkable tragedies in her life, while still being the incredibly loving, supportive friend everyone dreams of, a blazingly original talent, and an absolutely beloved star. Weller’s book is special, essential, and wildly entertaining. It will move you to tears… and to laughter.
Sheila Weller’s lively and insightful biography of actor and writer Carrie Fisher brings a fresh perspective to a life we thought we knew.
No one gets under the skin of a subject like Sheila Weller. She inhabits Carrie Fisher from somewhere deep inside, providing a tragic, albeit deeply moving portrait of a brilliant and brilliantly flawed Hollywood rebel. Carrie Fisher isn’t a postcard from the edge, it’s a dispatch from backstage ― and beyond.
A lively and informative account of the improbable life and times of Carrie Fisher. Fisher was a survivor of a movieland happily-ever-after that went gaudily off the rails (her family became an international scandal when her father, Eddie Fisher, left her mother, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor), and of one of the most successful franchises in film history (Star Wars, of course), not to mention a hairdo that would’ve sunk almost anybody else (think sci-fi George Eliot). But she was so much more than that: a curiosity, a sensation, a writer, a wreck, a wit, a flirt, an addict, a sage, a marvel, and, finally, a legend. She was, too, Hollywood’s sharpest critic as well as its moral conscience and best friend. Weller’s book captures the spirt of this complicated and contradictory figure. Wonderful fun.
This is the Carrie Fisher story as it had to be told ― with clarity and verve. Sheila Weller has created a brilliant kaleidoscopic portrait of a true original, smack in the center of our celebrity culture: a brassy, vulnerable lady with a searching intelligence rapier wit and a capacity for deep deep friendships. Sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, Weller charts Fisher’s evolution with perception, balance, and a keen understanding of Fisher’s tragic complexities. Importantly, Weller shows how Fisher kept challenging her dark experiences: she learned. She changed. She sometimes even found joy. Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge is a page-turner. I was emotionally hooked from start to finish.
Carrie Fisher: A Life On The Edge is a remarkable, moving portrait of a woman seemingly winning the race of life. I was moved to tears at many points as I read Carrie’s story in Sheila’s book ― tender and honest, with clarity about the hard gritty facts, and the tale of beauty and intelligence bound with bipolar disorder, sorrow and addiction. At the same time, my heart was lifted by Carrie’s hope against fate. In her book Girls Like Us, Sheila Weller painted intriguing, exciting, telling and provocative portraits of women who are icons: Carole King, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell. Weller’s new book on Carrie Fisher is the graduate course.
Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews ” Carrie Fisher A Life On the Edge” by Sheila Weller. November 2019
WOW! Kudos to Sheila Weller, author of “Carrie Fisher” A Life On the Edge” for writing such a poignant, memorable, compassionate, and intriguing Biography of the life of Carie Fisher. The Genre for this book is a Biography, and Sheila Weller has interviewed many friends, acquaintances and has done extensive research into Carrie Fisher’s life.
Sheila Weller shows us Carrie Fisher as “Hollywood Royalty”, daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. The author does discuss that Eddie Fisher most probably had a Bi-Polar disorder and had an addictive personality, which Carrie did inherit. Eddie Fisher did leave his wife, a young Carrie and her younger brother for a well-known actress.
The author shows us Carrie’s life from a little girl to her tragic death in 2016. Carrie had an unbelievable amount of friends, and Carrie herself was a loyal and generous friend. I was enthralled by Carrie’s life as a singer, actress, friend, daughter, writer, mother, and spokesperson. Carrie is also shown to be a feminist in many ways. Carrie was quick-witted and intelligent. She would question why older women in the entertainment industry would have certain expectations about their looks of youth, and men would not have that problem. Carrie would question many things.
I loved that Sheila Weller shows tremendous sympathy and compassion for Carrie Fisher’s mental illness and addiction. The author does show us that Carrie was aware that she needed help and struggled. Perhaps if there wasn’t a stigma of mental illness, when Carrie was much younger she could have gotten timely help. I would highly recommend this thought-provoking and amazing biography.