Wishful Drinking
by Carrie Fisher
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Book Reviews of Wishful Drinking
Book Review: In and Out, In and Out...
Summary: 5 Stars
...That being how I went in dodging chunks of dry ice and came out turning pages unlike I expected. I always say the most prophetic writers have inherited enormous amounts of pain, which Carrie I count among prophetic writers.
Dark humor?
On this one I can assert with a certain amount of certainty that trying to stifle laughing will not be an option. I don't know how many times I kept saying, "Awl... that's so not fun--" when up from the sternum bursts this uncontrollable laugh that I'm gonna have to argue, was without my consent.
Won't admit just where I laughed, but I will give prospective readers this one little hint--Every Page! Sometimes even twice on the same page!!! The cover, both intriguing and scenic, appropriately sums up for me the tattle-tell of what the grass really must look like on other sides.
Painful observations (for me as a reader). Poignant candor (for Carrie as an author). My rating: 4.5 Stars...
Book Review: Laughing Through the Awful Stuff
Summary: 5 Stars
Hilarious autobiography, taken from the actress's one-woman show. All the juice is in here; personal history with her famous parents (Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds) and their public meltdown over Elizabeth Taylor; her long relationship and short marriage to Paul Simon; her burst of stardom with the Star Wars franchise; but most of all, and overriding all else, Carrie's mental illness. Carrie is bipolar, and was undiagnosed and self-medicating for years and years, which led of course to Carrie being an alcoholic and drug addict. She's now an advocate for electroconvulsive shock therapy, even with the resulting loss of memories that need to be constantly rebuilt. That's not a path for everyone. We all shared this book around the house, and we all laughed out loud. Fisher renders even the most harrowing events of her life with a razor sharp tongue and eye for irony that makes the darkest hours relatable. She's someone I would enjoy hanging out with, crazy and all.Book Review: Editor, please!
Summary: 2 Stars
I love Carrie Fisher, and think she is one of the wittiest people alive, but this book reads like a collection of chapter drafts that nobody bothered to edit. The first two chapters cover almost identical material, with some of the same witty asides, even. It's like she wrote chapter 1, then lost it, wrote it again, found the first draft, and then decided to just use them as chapters 1 and 2 -- there, almost halfway done!
The font is huge, and the content is probably more like 40 pages worth if it had been in normal font -- this would have been better as a long magazine article.
The cover is perhaps the most promising part of the book. As others have said, her stage show is probably hysterical -- with inflection and all. Much like David Sedaris books--it's funnier in the author's voice -- heard spoken out loud.
Disappointing, especially since she is capable of so much more.
Book Review: Skip it
Summary: 2 Stars
What could have been a revealing, short biography by Carrie Fisher, (detailing her woes with drug abuse) is overshadowed by an actress/author whose narrative style is too cute by half. One gets the impression that Fisher's voice is not that of a fifty-two-year-old woman, but someone much younger and much more self-absorbed. The end result is a stultifying and often rambling book about someone who seems never quite to come to terms with her own problems.
Fisher, the daughter of stars and a star in her own right, appears patently directed not so much for telling her story, but to give a tidbit and follow with a funny remark or two. While some of her offerings are humorous, the author lacks a distance from herself in order to tell us how much (we hope) she's grown. That point is sorely lacking in "Wishful Drinking" and I recommend that potential readers pass it by.
Book Review: UGH
Summary: 1 Stars
I checked this book out of the library yesterday and returned it today. Did I enjoy it so much that I read it in one day? In a word: NO.
When will these Hollyweird people learn that they alienate half their potential audience with the all too predictable Republican bashes? This is probably the 4th or 5th time I've come on here to write a similar review of a book that I had eagerly anticipated reading.
I made it to the 2nd chapter before I felt like I was slapped in the face yet again. I cannot stress enough to these "authors" how sick and tired I am of the bashing of GWB and of Republicans. Newsflash people: some of us are not liberal democrats and it is really stupid to assume that we'll enjoy your book or recommend it to friends.
I couldn't get it out of my house fast enough.