Wishful Drinking
by Carrie Fisher
List Price:
Our Price: $4.69
You Save: $9.30 (66%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Carrie FisherEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-09-08
ISBN: 143915371X
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781439153710
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Wishful Drinking
Book Review: An Interesting Look at the Aftermath Years of Sudden Success When Young, That Didn't Continue as the Years Did
Summary: 3 Stars
Wishful Drinking passes the time amicably. It may be of more interest if you're a huge fan of Fisher or even Star Wars although if you are the former, you probably know most of the information inside and if you're the latter you may be disappointed that this is not a behind the scenes account of the filming of that trilogy. I watched the Star Wars movies, when I was kid, seen bits of each movie when they've been on TV every now again, and really not thought about the actors in those films at all since then (well other than Harrison Ford who you still in movies all the time). However Fisher recently came out to Australia and did the live TV show circuit guest appearance thing that many a former American stars do, and she was actually quite interesting, funny and readily admitted to not coping well with the years after sudden fame. So I decided to check out this book about that derailment of her life. I found it quite interesting, you don't really feel too sorry for her any more than you would feel sorry for a heavy smoker who develops lung cancer, as most of her problems have come from stupid self decision consequences, most revolving around believing alcohol and harder drugs were the answer, but you've got to admire someone who's prepared to admit they have a problem.
As well as the off the rails due to substance abuse chapters, Fisher also tells how a childhood to celebrity parents contributed to her turning to those substances in later life. This is interesting if like me you have no idea she had celebrity parents and does give an insight into what life is like for the kids of celebrities such as not knowing the difference between the woman on screen and your actual mum in the younger years. Fisher does admit her brother never went down her path from the same hardly ever there style, parent upbringing and gives other reasons for what happened to her.
There's really not much Star Wars goss other than Fisher's reactions to obsessed fans who basically tell her they've had their hands down their pants thinking about her chained to Jabba for decades. She does tell Lucas' excuse to why she couldn't wear a bra as Leia, and obviously the mass approval of her likeness by Lucas as Leia, which she has had no control, into heaps of products has contributed to damaging her mentally. Especially the blow up Leia sex toys, a Leia collectable figure with realistic looking genitalia. As a reader you are sort of wondering if there wasn't maybe a bit of innaprorpriate behaviour from Lucas in Fisher's teenage filming years of Star Wars, that she hasn't revealed that have maybe contributed to her mental state.
A lot of the revelations aren't really detailed, Fisher seems to hint at or begin to take the reader down a path then moves onto something else. The flow of the book sort of jumps around. What's there is sometimes repeated, especially information in the first chapter that is retold as if she hasn't told you before in chapter 2. She does admit to short term memory loss these days due to substances and procedures, but an editor should have picked this up if even she couldn't. Plus the word count isn't that great, it'll only take you an hour or two to read it all.
It's satisfies me as a reader who hasn't been a fan of Fisher other than having enjoyed Star Wars. I would have liked to have seen a comment or two on the terrible Star Wars prequel movies, maybe an at least I wasn't in those line or something. If you've been following her life there's probably nothing new for you to read here, but if you haven't it's an entertaining enough read to pass a few hours of time.
Summary of Wishful Drinking
Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of ) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage 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.
Entertainers Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Entertainers Books
El Sid: Saint Viciousby David Dalton
Griffin; Published: 1998-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.79
Price in other shops:
Moonwalkby Michael Jackson
Crown Archetype; Published: 2009-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.44
Price in other shops:
High Society: The Life of Grace Kellyby Donald Spoto
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2010-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Stand & Deliver: The Autobiographyby Adam Ant
Pan Macmillan; Published: 2007-04-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $105.86
San Antonio Rose: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF BOB WILLS (Music in American Life)by Charles Townsend
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1986-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.50
Price in other shops:
Orson Welles: Volume 1: The Road to Xanaduby Simon Callow
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1997-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
The Basketball Diariesby Jim Carroll
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1987-07-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.52
Price in other shops:
Hollywood Animalby Joe Eszterhas
Hutchinson; Published: 2004; Paperback; Book
Love, Janisby Laura Joplin
It Books; Published: 2005-08-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
A Paper Life CDby Tatum O'Neal
HarperAudio; Published: 2004-10-12; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $17.77
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Postcards from the EdgeSTREEP,MERYL; Release date: 2001-05-01; DVD
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiographyby Rob Lowe
Henry Holt and Co.; Published: 2011-04-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.55
Price in other shops:
Delusions of Grandmaby Carrie Fisher
POCKET BOOKS (SIMO); Published: 2005-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.02
A Paper Lifeby Tatum O'Neal
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2005-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.62
Price in other shops:
High On Arrival: A Memoirby Mackenzie Phillips
Gallery Books; Published: 2011-02-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.01
Price in other shops:
The Best Awful: A Novelby Carrie Fisher
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2004-12-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.23
Price in other shops:
Postcards from the Edgeby Carrie Fisher
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2010-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops:
Wishful DrinkingHBO; Release date: 2011-09-13; DVD
Best price: $12.70
Price in other shops:
Shockaholicby Carrie Fisher
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2011-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops: