Wishful Drinking

Carrie Fisher

Dec 2008 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

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, 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.

Ratings and reviews

Carrie Fisher had a remarkable and pointed way of talking about fame, life, addiction, and mental illness in a way that cuts into your soul, even if you haven't had those same experiences. Must read if you suffer from mental illness and are having trouble coming to terms with it, or if you're just a fan of her works (on screen and off). An immortal tribute to a painfully mortal woman.

The book is a short read. One plane ride for me. I enjoyed it, and learned a lot about a woman that in movies has been a part of my life since my pre teens. But it's dis- jointed, chaotic, and without background knowledge to understand. It still feels written by someone under the influence. It feels like something that needs an editor.

This was one of the funniest books I ever read. Carrie Fisher's ability to see the humor in her life and using it to help her cope is amazing. It is an interesting juxtaposition to the book "Madness - A Bipolar Life" by Marya Hornbacher, which I also recently read. While I think that all of you should read Wishful Drinking, I think that Ms. Fisher should read Madness.

About the author

Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) became a cultural icon as Princess Leia in the first Star Wars trilogy. She starred in countless films, including Shampoo and When Harry Met Sally. She is the author of Shockaholic; Wishful Drinking (which became a hit Broadway production); and four bestselling novels, Surrender the Pink, Delusions of Grandma, The Best Awful, and Postcards from the Edge.