Book Review: The Princess Diarist
For my bookclub GamersRead, this months pick was The Princess Diarist written by the late Carrie Fisher. Being the one in the group who doesn't have a deep affinity for Star Wars made The Princess Diarist a slightly different read then that of my comrades. Going in I knew almost nothing about Carrie Fisher other then she played Princess Leia and was also the mom in one of my favorite shows Catastrophe.
The Princess Diarist was sold to me as a string of diary entries from Carrie Fisher during the filming of episode 4 of Star Wars. However, what I found out quickly was that the majority of the book was Carrie Fisher reminiscing our her time of making the first Star Wars movie and her romantic involvement with her co-star, Harrison Ford. As a matter of fact, there was to much of the novel that was dedicated to her fling with the then married Harrison Ford, so much that I almost stopped reading the book.
However, just around the half-way point of The Princess Diarist this magical and unexpected transition happens where the book dives into a random assortment of diary entries from Carrie Fisher during the filming of the first Star Wars. These entries were poetic, sometimes tragic, and almost always insightful. And as quickly as these diary entries arrive, they're done and we are back to close to present day Carrie Fisher going back and reminiscing on the movie and also her life after Star Wars.
There's so little substance to The Princess Diarist that I was left feeling like I was reading an article in People magazine about Carrie Fisher then anything worth putting into a novel. Outside of the briefest of highs with her diary entries I slogged through what was a random assortment of musings from Princess Leia. I can't even imagine why this book was ever published, which is sad because there were a few times in this novel that Carrie Fisher's creative genius shined through but there just wasn't enough of it.
