Wishful Drinking (or Finally, a real memoir!)

I am more than a little excited to learn tonight that Carrie Fisher a writer, actress, humorist, and self-proclaimed product of "Hollywood in-breeding" (her parents are Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) has finally, after a long string of thinly veiled novels based on her own life, come all out with an actual memoir for real. Released the 2nd of this month, "Wishful Drinking" chronicles the star's dysfunctional life up to an including her bipolar disorder, shock treatments, and waking up with a corpse in her bed (the dearly departed was male but also gay, so not a Private Benjamin type situation).

Like everyone else, I loved Carrie as Miss Cinnamon Buns aka Princess Leia, but my real girl crush didn't start until I read her first novel, "Postcards from the Edge", loosely based on Fisher's experiences in rehab and recovery and the subsequent perils of living the life of a recovering addict with a Hollywood diva for a mother in the never-never land of Tinseltown. The move of the same name was highly anticipated, but let me down in casting Meryl Streep as the Fisher character against the brilliant choice of Shirley MacLaine as Debbie Reynolds. I personally couldn't get passed the fact that Streep and MacLaine aren't nearly far apart enough in age to actually be mother/daughter (hello?). Still, thanks to MacLaine, the movie, while not an overall success, gave us some incredible moments like the whole "it twirled up" confrontation.

Fisher would go on to follow up "Postcards" with "Surrender the Pink", "Delusions of Grandma" and "The Best Awful" three more obviously autobiographical works packaged as fiction. Having enjoyed all these books, you'll understand why I'm a little excited to finally have added a book by Fisher to my Amazon shopping card that is overtly biographical.

Even better news is that Fisher is out promoting her newest work most recently on NPR on December 16th. If you're a fan, this 30 minute interview on Talk of the Nation is worth hearing. Carrie is also on the road with her one-woman show with the same name as her newest book. The show will open in Seattle in March. I just might be crazy enough to head on up there and see it.