The bestselling author of Postcards from the Edge comes clean (well, sort of) in her first-ever memoir, adapted from her one-woman Broadway hit show. Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of “Hollywood in-breeding,” come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.Intimate, hilarious, … nineteen.
Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It’s an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty—Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher—homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.
Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success. Entertainment Weekly declared it “drolly hysterical” and the Los Angeles Times called it a “Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes.” This is Carrie Fisher at her best—revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor.
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I’ll first say I’m far from starstuck as a rule, often unable to name a musician or actor even from art that I love; I just don’t tend to care about celebrities’ lives. Unfortunately, that means I didn’t learn how amazing Carrie Fisher was as a human until she passed away. WISHFUL DRINKING has instantly earned a spot as one of my favorite books of all time. I highly recommend the audiobook edition: bite-sized at just 3 hours and read by the author with energy and wryness dripping from every word. I listened to it in a single sitting… and then listened to it again the next day. I found myself pausing the narration and scribbling down quotes to send to my best friend with annotations like “SERIOUSLY THOUGH” and “SOUND FAMILIAR?” and “PREACH, SISTER!”
Though I couldn’t relate at all to the first part, a romp through her upbringing among Hollywood’s elite, I was enormously entertained, often laughing out loud — even though I don’t care about the famous people she was talking about.
It was the second half, in which Carrie Fisher speaks candidly, almost flippantly, and matter-of-factly about living with mental illness and addiction, that made me treasure this slim book. Carrie faces these themes head-on, yet packaged in a voice brimming with droll humor and biting sarcasm that honestly just charmed me senseless. Using remarkably few words, she illustrates how hopelessly tangled-up mental illness, substance use, and trauma can make us, and how incredibly difficult it is to find treatments as the causes get blended together in a boozy cocktail you never even had a recipe for.
This book contains the best nonmedical portrayals of bipolar disorder I’ve ever encountered.
“In almost… well, I won’t say every other situation, but in a lot of situations, you can hardly tell that there is anything really wrong with me. I just have basically too much personality for one person and not quite enough for two.”
“But imagine this, though. Imagine having a mood system that functions essentially like weather — independently of whatever’s going on in your life. So the facts of your life remain the same; just the emotional fiction that you’re responding to differs. It’s like I’m not properly insulated; all the bad and the good… pours into my system unchecked.… I call it ESP: egregious sensory protection. But ultimately I feel very sane about how crazy I am. Periodically I do explode. Now, the good news about this is that over time, the explosions have gotten smaller and the recovery time has gotten faster. But what is guaranteed is that I will explode.”
“One of the things that baffles me (and there are quite a few) is how there can be so much lingering stigma with regards to mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder. In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls. Not unlike a tour of Afghanistan (though the bombs and bullets, in this case, come from the inside). At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of. They should issue medals along with the steady stream of medication.”
I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you have loved ones who are diagnosed with mental disorders or who experience substance addiction. Oh, and I guess you’ll love it if you’re a fan of STAR WARS, too, if you want to hear about George Lucas’s feelings about bras in space.
Shortly after Carrie Fisher passed away, someone gave me this book to read on a whim. I loved it! This is an easy read that will have you rolling on the couch, laughing so hard until it hurts! It is a witty look into the life of a icon, through beer goggles and bipolar meds. One of my favorite reads of the year. Enjoy!
For the record, I love Carrie Fisher. This book is a hilarious, heartbreaking insight into the life of a gifted, bi-polar addict. I laughed and cried simultaneously. And I really really want that PEZ-dispenser.
Fisher’s first biography is entertaining but a bit rambling. I plan to read her other biographies.
Carrie Fisher has been one of my favorite authors since I read Postcards from the Edge. She had an incredible wit, an unflinching view on life (both in general and her own) and never hesitated to tell the truth. That said, she is absolutely hilarious!
3 stars – I liked it
Trigger Warnings: Discussion of ECT therapy, depression, suicide, death of friend, drug use, and bipolar disorder.
In her first memoir, Carrie Fisher comes clean about what it is like to grow up as a product of Hollywood, become a cultural icon, and deal with mental illness. This was an intimate, hilarious, and very sobering memoir of what Fisher remembers of her past.
This was a very interesting memoir. Carrie Fisher definitely did not have a normal childhood and it was very interesting to learn how it affected her. I knew she had struggled with drugs but I never realized it had been for so long or the reasons behind why she did drugs. Also I didn’t know that she had ECT therapy for her continued struggle with depression.
Basically this was a very interesting look at the woman who became a pop culture icon. I loved that she actually narrated this audiobook herself because it really helped bring her story to life. I now want to listen to her other two memoirs and see what new information they reveal about this wonderful woman.
Carrie Fisher gets no better. This one is perfect!
I felt like we were sitting at a bar chatting
Love Carrie’s book. Have read them all. Please take the time to read them. She is wonderful, even off camera.
Carrie is funny and inspirational and tragic all in one. Miss her.
I ENJOY READING ALL HER BOOKS EVEN THOUGH THEY’ER A LITTLE DEPRESSING.
Based on the one woman show, this is a peek into the mind of one of the most interesting people in the public eye. I suggest this and the one woman show to anyone who wants to get a peek into an unconventional life, hear someone wittier than they are speak, or know Carrie Fisher just a little. It feels like she shares everything, but by the end you’ll realize it was only the tip of the iceberg.