Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher is a memoir I’ve long been keen to read, due to both the book’s hilarious cover and being a Star Wars fan (I even had a Star Wars themed dress up party when I was a child). After reading Emily’s review of it at Books, The Universe and Everything last month, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer. And a good thing too because I enjoyed Wishful Drinking so much that I read it in one sitting, chuckling all the way through.
Fisher gives a humorous account of her life; from being raised by two Hollywood celebrities (Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher), to her experiences on the set of Star Wars, struggles with addiction, tumultuous love life and experiences with bipolar. Since Singin’ in the Rain is one of my favourite movies, I really enjoyed reading Fisher’s stories about Reynolds and getting a sense of what she is really like. Also I loved how Fisher dished the dirt on various celebrities, including Chevy Chase and Elizabeth Taylor. So many stories in Wishful Drinking made me laugh, but I’ll leave them for you to discover if you read it, and instead leave you with a few of my favourite quotes:
“Anyway at a certain point in my early twenties, my mother started to become worried about my obviously ever increasing drug ingestion. So she ended up doing what any concerned parent would do. She called Cary Grant.”
“Right after I got sober (the first time), an interviewer asked me if I was happy, and I said, “Among other things.” Happy is one of the many things I’m likely to be over the course of a day and certainly over the course of a lifetime. But I think if you have the expectation that you’re going to be happy throughout your life – more to the point if you have a need to be comfortable all the time – well, among other things, you have the makings of a classic drug addict or alcoholic.”
Other Reviews:
Books, The Universe and Everything
Let’s Eat, Grandpa! Let’s Eat Grandpa! (Punctuation Saves Lives)
Coffee-Stained Pages 
That’s really interesting, I am not normally one to read memoirs or anything, but then again, I would love to read some of that dirt she dishes out about different people. I didn’t know that she was an addict.
Yeah she abused alcohol and a bunch of different drugs. Really it could have easily have been a pretty depressing book but she’s written it trying to look at the funny side of her problems. It’s a really quick and easy read, very short. If you get to it I hope you enjoy it!
Interesting review! The book looks like a nice and interesting read! I liked both your favourite quotes but loved the first one, especially the sentence – “So she ended up doing what any concerned parent would do. She called Cary Grant.” 🙂
I loved the part where her mum called Cary Grant. It was so funny!
Haha, she called Cary Grant! 😀 My stupid library doesn´t have the book, but I´ll suggest acquiring it. Great review!
I hope you can get your hands on it, it’s such a quick, funny read. 🙂
Sounds like an interesting read. I do enjoy a good memoir. Glad you enjoyed it.
It was great, I highly recommend it!
I’m so glad that you enjoyed it too! 🙂
I love the quotes you posted as well.
Thanks for recommending it! There are so many great quotes in the book that it was hard to pick only two. 😉
I don’t know if I’d read this, but I do like that last quote. In fact, know someone who could benefit from thinking about that.
I think it’s a very true quote. I’m sure there are a lot of people who could benefit from thinking about that one. It was a good book in that it was both funny and full of truisms like that.
I put it on my TBR list after Emily reviewed it, but now I have two really great recommendations — it’s going on my hold list at the library! 🙂
I hope you enjoy it! I’ll be interested to hear what you think when you’re done. 🙂
Oh, I am going to have to get this! Fun review.
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