Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher
I grew up with Princess Leia. As a child born in the mid-1970s, I was a Star Wars Kid. I had an older brother and a younger brother and both were obsessed with Star Wars. They had almost all the original figures from the first few years. We had the Star Wars soundtrack on 8 Track. My older brother read the novels. My younger brother had the first movie memorized word for word and would change costumes repeatedly as we watched it on those big laser disc things that were inside a cardtridge---I don't know what they are called. My cousin had the Princess Leia 12" doll and I was so jealous. Yes, I played with my brothers' action figures, but I really liked Princess Leia. She was one of the handful of women in the movie, and she could hold her own with the male leads. She wasn't a princess in need of rescue. She knew how to use a blaster. Princess Leia was an amazing role model.
That's what I knew of Carrie Fisher growing up. I did not know much about Carrie Fisher other than through Star Wars. I never saw her in many other movies. I knew she had written a couple of books and they had been turned into movies.
This book is not an in-depth comprehensive autobiography, but was made after an autobiographical show she did. It is meant to be a humorous and snarky look at her life. We read about her super famous mom and dad, and growing up as the child of celebrities. We learn about some of her love interests, as well as her daughter. We come to understand the strong bond of love she had for both her mother and her daughter, and we learn a bit about her addiction.
The shocking thing about her drug addiction is that her own mother introduced her to addiction. She thought they would try pot together when Carrie was a young teen. Her mother got over it and forgot about it, but it awakened the monster of substance abuse in Carrie...which eventually took her life.
Boy if you get nothing else out of this meant-to-be-humorous book, it's that a parent has an imporant responsibility to keep their children safe and protected from harm. Trying to drink or do drugs or smoke at home "under your watch" is not safe. You're hurting your kids. Just don't.
So Carrie Fisher wasn't Princess Leia in real life. Such is the way with actors. We know that, yet are disappointed to find that our favorite characters are just fiction. However, despite the rest of the problems she had in life, I would like to say that her choice to portray a strong female lead in a groundbreaking sci-fi saga truly has positively influenced a lot of women in the world today, giving them someone to look up to, encouraging them to be strong, eloquent, feminine, and able to hold their own in a man's world.
