It seemed to me and to many others that 2016 was a particularly bad year for us. It felt like the bad guys were winning, and the world was losing many of its good guys. It felt like non-stop bad news for a full twelve months. Of course, there were many good things that happened throughout the year, but it just felt like we couldn't get through a single month without reading that a beloved actor or writer or musician had passed away or that a country's voters had made a terrible decision.
Four days before the end of the year, on December 27, we lost yet another public figure: the delightful and enchanting Carrie Fisher. Best known for her portrayal of the iconic sci-fi character of Princess Leia of the Star Wars film series, Carrie Fisher was also an incredible writer. She wrote novels, memoirs, and screenplays. In fact, her Hollywood legacy is not limited to starring in some of the most famous movies of all time but also includes the often-overlooked detail that, throughout her career, Fisher was one of the most sought out script doctors in the industry. A script doctor is exactly what it sounds like: someone who is hired to look at a script that is found lacking and fix it. She did this for Hook, The Wedding Singer, and Sister Act. three of the most beloved movies of the 90s, and many more.
The last publication before her death was a touching but hilarious memoir, The Princess Diarist. Published a little over a month before her passing, the book is a record of her involvement with Star Wars, from her hilariously awkward first audition for Leia to her apprehensive and excited thoughts on having to reprise the role in the first installment of the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens. Unsurprising for the children of a couple whose first date was seeing A New Hope, my siblings and I were raised on Star Wars. Even less surprising was, as an only daughter among brothers, I was a devotee of the only female character among many male characters in the sci-fi series and of the woman who brought her to life on-screen.
The Princess Diarist gained quick notoriety during its press tour as it came to light that, in the book, Fisher confirmed what the world at large had guessed for decades: a passionate affair with her on-screen love, Harrison Ford. In the two longest chapters of the book, Fisher shares how the relationship with her married co-star began and how it ended. As a companion to her own recollections, she also includes excerpts from the diary she kept during the production of Star Wars in England. For me, the best part of the book that makes the purchase more than worth the price, is the inclusion of these diary entries. I wept throughout the 70+ pages that include the excerpts, consisting mostly of heart-wrenching poems and rambling paragraphs that were so painfully obviously about Ford. The intimacy and poignancy of these entries was so moving for me because of the universality of heartache. Who hasn't felt the desperation that comes with being in love?
At times, I found that her musings on this relationship left me feeling uncomfortable. Starting with their first night together where Ford saved her from a crowd of rowdy men who'd been plying her with drinks to the days they spent together. She was nineteen or twenty at the time. He was in his mid-thirties, married, and a father of two. To me, the relationship is one with a plethora of red flags, but I know that, back then, in the 70s, it wasn't a big deal. People still might dismiss it today. I definitely didn't think of it as romantic or enchanting or that of star-crossed lovers. It seemed predatory. Fisher, however, never speaks of it like this. She reflects on it like most of us do when thinking of our first love.
After discussing the saga she refers to as "Carrison", Fisher also goes on to address some of the aspects that have come with portraying Princess Leia, from the strange peculiarity of being the first love of an entire generation of now-grown men to comparing convention appearances and autograph sessions to lap dances.
Should you go the route of audiobook for this reading, it is a delight. As with most of my books recently, I read when I can and listen when I can't. Having Carrie Fisher in my ear for this one was a real treat. Her raspy, weathered voice had me looking for any excuse to be in the car or occupied with a house chore just so I could listen instead of read. Her diary entries are read by her husky-voiced daughter, Billie Lourd, and it's nice to picture them working on this project together.
The Princess Diarist is a wonderful look into what it would be like if you were the star of an intergalactic space opera that has become one of the major parts of the cultural zeitgeist for the last four decades. It is also an insight into the feelings of a nineteen-year old experiencing one of her very first heartaches. The blend of these two different accounts–one so unique and the other so very universal–makes this an incredibly special book. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those who loved Carrie and the light that she brought to the world.
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