The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
Release Date - November 22, 2016

Publisher Website -  Penguin Random House Canada
Publisher Social Media - Twitter

Pages -  257 pages
My Rating - 4/5
**own - gifted**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

The last book from beloved Hollywood icon Carrie Fisher, The Princess Diarist is an 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 Wars movie.

When Carrie Fisher 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 naivete, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Before her passing, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon was indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

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. 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 one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.

Biographies in which the person writing seems to be sharing part of themselves feel special. Carrie Fisher opens about about filming Star Wars in The Princess Diarist but also shares so much of herself. It reads like what I imagine a conversation with the actress would have been like.

My biggest takeaway from this is that Carrie Fisher was a witty, self deprecating, funny, flawed woman who also happened to be an incredible writer. She has such a strong personality that comes through in her writing. She was skilled and that talent carried over to talking about herself which is not always the case.

Star Wars fans will enjoy this little glimpse into the behind the scenes of Carrie's experience on the set. She obviously had a deep love and affection for not only the movies but the character of Princess Leia. I am not a huge Star Wars fan but even I could appreciate how this movie became this big, life altering thing for her.

A chunk of this book is made up of diary entries that were written during her time on set. There some absolutely incredible poetry and general musings that reflect the writer we experience throughout the whole book. There is a mix of everything from hope to heartbreak laid out in these entries and it is inspiring how much she chose to share.

The big reveal is, of course, the affair with co-star Harrison Ford. Many of the diary entries are about him and their time together. It feels like the book is mostly about that with the other set experiences being more in the background. This affair could have been written about in many different ways and the most classy way is what was chosen. There is nothing salacious and the details that are shared are done so respectfully I feel. She is careful to only share what she wants to and in the manner she wants to.

Reading this only increased my admiration for Carrie Fisher. She was an talented woman who shared so much about herself. She's brutally honest about herself and how this time in her life impacted her. I recommend this to anyone who has ever looked back at a situation with hindsight and saw everything much more clearly, maybe cringed a little at your own behaviour, but ultimately realized you wouldn't be the same person without those experiences. It's entirely relatable, and worthy of reading even if you're not interested in Star Wars.