REVIEW: The Princess Diarist
I think I might elicit some strong responses when I tell you that I don’t like Star Wars. Yes, I’ve seen parts of the originals and I’ve even read some academic lit on why Star Wars is amazing but thanks, no thanks, not for me. The only time in my life I was jazzed about Star Wars, the year was 2000 and Episode One had just come out and JarJar was everything (sorrynotsorry). I would later discover that ep 1 does not age well and so here I am again as someone who does not enjoy the franchise.
That being said, I’ve always thought that Carrie Fisher was a REAL BROAD and so I was very excited to read The Princess Diarist. In this book, Carrie begins from her time as a backup singer for her famous mother (Debbie Reynolds) in Las Vegas through to her university days, and then onto all of the projects leading up to the famed Star Wars audition period.
This bio has such a strong beginning I didn’t realize something was amiss until I was halfway through “The Buns of Navarone”, an entire chapter about the hair choice for the Star Wars franchise. This chapter is then followed by “Carrison”, a dishy and detailed account of Carrie’s on-set affair with then-married Harrison Ford. Initially intrigued by this, I feel that the prose in this chapter is so dense that it completely bogged down the newsworthy-ness of this update. She recounts mostly her feelings about being the relationship but oftentimes repeats herself by articulating one sentiment in a couple of different ways.
**Note** This chapter takes up almost a quarter of the whole book (23%)!
It could be that so many people have asked her about it over the years, married with the fact that, tbf, it is a tasty piece of gossip totally worth writing about, but the account is so heavy and I guess I was just expecting a bit more variety?
There is a really interesting portion of the book, however, taken from Carrie Fisher’s actual diaries when she was 19 and on-set, but most of the writing implicitly focuses on Harrison Ford again. The writing is lofty and serious but definitely feels like a nineteen-year-old’s diary and even though cringey at times, it’s nice to know that someone young and famous grapples with the same issues as the rest of us.
The book does eventually get back on track when we flash to Carrie’s life at the time of her writing and her dealings post-Star Wars. All-in-all, though, Carrie Fisher was a talent and wrote with such humour and quick intellect, I would still read the shit out of her other works.
Read if you like: Talking as Fast as I Can, rad women telling it like it is
