Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (2008, Hardcover)

Carrie Fisher, the author of four novels, several screenplays and two one-woman shows, has finally written her memoir, or adapted it from her show of the same name, "Wishful Drinking." She admits that she is a "product of Hollywood inbreeding." After her father Eddie Fisher left her mother Debbie Reynolds, Fisher grew up emotionally dependent on her mother, which presented difficulties because her mother was emotionally dependent on being famous.

The pace of one-liners in "Wishful Drinking" is a little like living in an apartment where the public works people are jack-hammering up the sidewalk out front, but it's as valid a way as any of depicting the floodlit, perspectiveless world of fame where Fisher has spent her life. Her stint at 19 as Princess Leia in "Star Wars" only launched her further out into space- pun intended- and George Lucas' insistence on certain wardrobe choices- no bra, instead taping down her breasts with gaffer's tape- only made her life more surreal.

"Wishful Drinking" is Fisher's attempt to gather up a lifetime of memories scattered by electroshock therapy. What ties the book together is Fisher's struggle with addiction and manic depression. At one point, she describes being admitted to a locked ward during a psycholtic episode, signing her commitment papers with a single word: "shame." Oddly, it's when she describes herself at her craziest, that she sounds the most sane. An okay read, if you can handle the jack-hammers.