The Princess Diarist Hardcover – November 22, 2016

"There's not much in my life that I've kept secret. Many would argue there are certain otherwise-private stories I might've been wiser to keep closer to the vest. That vest knows no proximity." - Carrie FisherWhat in the world can be said about Carrie Fisher's remarkable gift for writing except that it was, in fact, remarkable. For all that I loved her as an actress, for all that I truly ADORED her as my personal hero, Princess Leia, writing was where her true talent lay, and I believe this is where her heart really was."The Princess Diarist" was yet another entry into the brilliance of Ms. Fisher's mind, fogged and clouded as it was sometimes with her depression, sparkling at other times with her wit. This was the most personal book she has written, I feel, and one of the most uplifting and most poignant. She tells us in the first chapter that while going through some boxes of old writing she found the diaries she kept while filming the first Star Wars movie forty years beforehand. She begins briefly with how she got into acting 2 years before that, despite never really actively wanting to be in show business at all, and moves quickly to those days of auditions, when she read both for the parts of Princess Leia in "Star Wars" and for the titular part in the horror film "Carrie." "I thought that last role would be a funny casting coup if I got it: Carrie *as* Carrie *in* 'Carrie'." Her recollections of her own inner monologues after the casting call are fun and funny, and the way she remembers reading the script for the first is vivid and touching how much she loved it (even though that script would later be completely redone since Star Wars was not going to have that kind of budget). She tells us how much she wanted the part, how excited she was when she got the call that "they want you." She remembers laughing and running into the street in the rain. "It didn't rain in L.A. It was raining in L.A. and I was Princess Leia. I had never been Princess Leia before and now I would never not be Princess Leia. I had no idea how profoundly true that was and how long forever was."The biggest chunk of the book is her recollections of the things that happened behind the scenes during the three-month shooting, wrapping up with the crazy-wild reception of the film after it's release. Did you know that the term "blockbuster" was born shortly after "Star Wars" premiered as way to describe the lines going around the block and continuing to the next one? Carrie tells us, "It was *one movie*. It wasn't supposed to do *that.* Nothing ever had. Movies were meant to stay on the scree, flat and large and colorful, gathering you up in their sweep of story, carrying you rollicking along to the end, then releasing you back into your unchanged life. But this movie misbehaved. It leaked out of the theater, poured off the screen, affected a lot of people so deeply that they required endless talismans and artifacts to stay connected to it... And on top of whatever else, Mark, Harrison, and I were the only people who were having this experience. So who do talk to that might understand?" She goes on to say that this was completely unlike starring in your average everyday movie because now she was a household name and there were cameras everywhere. "I had to comport myself with something approaching dignity, at *twenty.*" So her recollections of being in that movie forty years before could and can still apply to young stars today as an object lesson.The last 2 chapters of the book tell us about Ms. Fisher's more recent fan encounters at the conventions where she signs autographs and gives pictures, how she feels about Leia now (you'll be surprised) and how life as Leia has affected her now that the has distance and perspective of forty years to better dissect the unadulterated fandom that has surrounded this character she brought to life.Altogether a thoroughly entertaining read, and not just for the fans. Having read excerpts to my 65 year old mother who was never a fan (though she had been forced to at least peripherally watch the original trilogy multiple times due to *my* fandom and the fact that we were never so well off that there were TVs and VCRs in the kids' rooms), she was entertained enough to download the sample for herself and hooked enough from the start to buy the book. I would hear her laughing at loud when she read on her lunch break where we worked together, and also sometimes making sympathetic noises or faces at her Kindle. Trust me, you don't have to be a Star Wars fan to love this one.

Wow. I have, of course, always loved Star Wars and Princess Leia, and, eventually, once I was older and capable of understanding the difference between a character and the actor playing the character, I have loved Carrie Fisher. I love her honesty and self doubt, her swearing, although it was sadly lacking in this book. I love her openness and her willingness to share the deepest insecurities of being a new adult and her perspectives of those times now that time has marched across her mind, body, and soul. I love this book because now that she is gone, I can still open and skim through lines that I've highlighted and they will warm my heart knowing that this crazy ass world was once blessed with both Princess Leia AND Carrie Fisher.

What a wonderfully engaging writer. Funny, poignant, thoughtful, honest and wise. We lost a wonderful human being and great comic mind.

Apparently Carrie Fisher's new book was originally called "The Kvetching Princess Diarist" but then they decided to simply call it "The Princess Diarist" for reasons unclear.I'm joking. It was never called that. But it should have been, seeing how Ms. Fisher is all about honesty. I've always said New Yorkers (of which I am one part-time) have made kvetching an art form, and that's not a compliment but only a compliment if it's the end of a good joke.Not that Ms. Fisher is that kvetch obsessed entirely, but as her swift read came to a close after a very quick 5-hours of reading time, she needs to buckle up if she doesn't think there is any value in the saying (probably created by a former professional kvetcher) "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." She's bit it and is licking the wounds and that's a shame because she's such a good writer.I can imagine people in Hollywood and publishing dismiss Ms. Fisher's sardonic "Oh woe is me and my fame" as her charm. Hm. It's a curious charm in this book. The first half is fantastic writing as she details her affair with Harrison Ford. The insights are so smart and on-point. She turns her trademark lacerating wit onto herself and it's exactly right for memoir. The turns of phrases and her writing are a blast to read. Just when you think you've got a handle of where her flow is going, she throws in a tugboat and a steamer and you're taken for a ride in a new and frothy way. Yes, I wrote the word frothy.She's smart as hell. She's got a rambling wit that goes off on tangents that are her great strength as a writer. She goes on and on and on and it all works. She draws out a quick romance for almost 120 pages. Then the book takes a turn after she shares her diary entries during the filming of the original Star Wars and after that, well, it's all about The Kvetch.I mean, I get it. She's sick of being seen as Princess Leia. She's annoyed at the need to be viewed as an icon. She wants to be seen as Carrie, not Leia. But the strange thing is, she is. Postcards from the Edge is a fantastic read and the movie was brilliant. It was. Anyone who doesn't think so has very basic taste in films. Her subsequent books are fun as well. Delusions of Grandma and Surrender the Pink. Yes, I've read them all because I like her. Wishful Drinking is super and her stage show was honest and real and about something. That's rare.Yet something happens at the end of the book that I don't think she fully intended, and yet I bet you a $70 signed photo of her (actions she calls 'lap dancing', meaning, her whoring out herself to sign photos to pay for her spending - spending she could only do if she had the opportunity to 'lap dance') - I bet she had numerous people read this before it went to print and I wish someone had edited her.She says she loves her fans and is moved by them, and yet she quotes long passages of what they say to her at conventions and it's all rather telling what she decided to put into print.I love Carrie Fisher. I do. Carrie Fisher the writer. Carrie Fisher the memorist. Carrie Fisher the mental health advocate. It's as if she doesn't know some of us could really give a rip she played a space princess for awhile. Okay, sure. She's an icon. But she's created a very reputable body of work since then and yet it's as if she refuses to focus on that, only on some people's need to relate to a character she played in some movies.I would recommend she republish the book as a novella. Keep all the Harrison Ford writing, the diaries - that's all so delicious and maybe jettison that other stuff that comes after. Because it's really not the best side of you Carrie Fisher. Extraordinary writer. Thriver. Lucky recipient of a role that made you famous. Writer who is beyond The Kvetch.

This book makes me sad, if you are a TRUE Star Wars fan I would NOT read this. This book gave me a sleepless night.I regret the sick curiosity inside the led me to pick up this book, normally I don’t care at all for Hollywood gossip and recoil at kiss-and-tell. I honesty didn’t know to expect Carrie’s style of writing was with such unabashed honesty, and I didn’t expect the rollercoaster of obession that led to such hurt, that leads us to what only feels like such defamation towards Ford, but once I flicked through could not let go. My beloved Star Wars characters destroyed before my eyes, I will never see the same again. So at first I felt the strong sense of sadness this was ever published, why was it published? Money? Publicity? A last revenge? To elicit sympathy? I felt angry these secrets had been told, I guess the mystery behind the characters always held some excitements and sophistication in the secrecy of the possiblites of romance......and then like a crude tabloid too much is revealed - I felt angry, but contemplated, and then may have at some level understood the deep sadness she must have carried, the unrequited love, and I guess perhaps I understand maybe she would have wanted to share that with her fans, for them to truly understand what a sadness she must have carried all that time, it’s pretty tragic, and poetic and uncomfortable, and distasteful all at the same time. But of course, it’s just one side, it’s just a book, and at that a 19 year olds musings of a whirlwind romance that she obviously never really got over. But then it’s Harrison Ford, so my diary would have involved more or less the same torment, and I doubt I would ever have got over it either. RIP Carrie.

I was intrigued by this book as it was written during the original filming of Star Wars, A New Hope. The first part is written by Carrie Fisher looking back on those times and one of the most striking things about her writing is her vulnerability. In certain areas she was obviously confident and outgoing, but in others she was incredibly vulnerable and naïve. That she loved and still has a great respect for Harrison Ford is obvious.The middle part of the book contains extracts of her actual diaries. The poetry and rhyme which she concocted to try and express her feelings is both strange and convoluted at times. It does reinforce the feeling that this is a very fragile and sensitive person.The final part of the book talks about life after the trilogy, Comic-Con and the lengths some of the fans will go to for an autograph. The comments are not made in a disrespectful or malicious way, but again there is a naivety that people take the films so seriously. Overall it is an interesting insight into the woman, who for millions of fans, will always be Princess Leia Organa.

Carrie's writing style is simply incredible, being earnest and articulate throughout. The book is broken down into different parts, starting with Carrie telling the story of a brief but - for her - meaningful tryst with Harrison Ford while shooting the original Star Wars movie. She then publishes pages from her diary from that time, telling of her heartache after they all went home when the movie was done. It's heartbreaking but utterly gripping, her poetry reminiscent of material by the likes of Dr John Cooper Clarke. Then it goes into the dizzying success of Star Wars, and how unprepared for it she was, despite her mother's fame.You can tell how cathartic writing this must have been for Carrie. It's clearly something she felt needed to be told, though as with several of her stories throughout the tome, you can just imagine she regretted publishing it once it was out there, but maybe not as much as some might expect.

I bought this originally in hardback the day before Carrie passed. I had watched her on BBC 2 edition of QI just days before which had prompted the purchase.I couldn't open it.I eventually got it on kindle and finally read it.It's witty laugh out loud and sad . I can hear her time worn raspy voice speak every word as she details her fling with Harrison whilst on the set of Star Wars iv. The time spent in UK detailed lovingly as she grew to become an Anglophile. Drinking with the crew (she had never drunk before!).The memories are very , well human. It made me year up and cry in the same chapter. Her attitude to stardom tainted by her life in her Mother's shadow. She had to overcome fear and doubt whilst starting in a movie franchise she would forever be associated with.Her sit will be missed. At least she left us some endearing anecdotes to read.Enjoy.

She was the first love of my life. Sadly, Carrie left us too early, and she went in a way that left a bittersweet taste. This is a book written by a woman who grew up in a fantasy world that was hard enough to survive in, and then was absorbed into a role that followed her forever. Princess Leia will always be Carrie Fisher, and Carrie Fisher will always be Princess Leia. The diaries here are from a 19 year old about to fall in love and about to discover the one role that she will always be loved for. Sometimes it grated, sometimes she celebrated it. She accepted it, eventually, and was gracious enough to share some of her most honest thoughts ever from the making of one of the greatest films ever. Sad at times, very funny at others, this is an honest and open book that shows the human being beneath the Alderraan princess.