Happy June everyone! As a teacher, June is one of my most favourite and least favourite months. The end is in sight, which is overall rather joyous, but I will be saying goodbye to students and friends - at least for the summer, but some for longer. At the same time, things are crazier now than at pretty much any other time of the year.
So, if I seem to fall off the face of the planet, I will see you again in July. I promise to try really, really hard not to, though.
When I can squeak out a few minutes, I have been slowly working my way through a few books (of course!). I am really looking forward to getting back into my regular summer reading soon! But right now one of the books I am reading is nonfiction, and it brought to mind a nonfiction read from earlier this year: Carrie Fisher's The Princess Diarist.
After Carrie Fisher's death, litsy, goodreads, facebook - all of my book-loving social media platforms blew up with people reading this book, based on some old journals that Fisher kept during the filming of the original Star Wars film. There are pieces of the original journals themselves included in this book itself, which was very touching to so many fans reading it, including myself.
Carrie Fisher was a smart, witty, candid, damaged, strong woman, and if you did not know that before, you won't get far into this book without figuring it out. Each page absolutely drips with her voice.
I do not generally pick up nonfiction in my "fun reading" time, but when I do, it is generally about people I really do admire. Carrie Fisher did a lot of good in this world. But her life was complicated, just downright messy, and this was not any different during the filming of A New Hope. Much of the book deals with her affair with Harrison Ford - an older, married man. She is gracious, yet frank.
One of my particular favourite descriptions is actually the story of how they decided on the famous "Leia hair" - the two buns on the sides of her head. It's these anecdotes that kept me chuckling as I sped through the book one afternoon, but these anecdotes are also what bring the reader closer to her as an author in addition to an icon.
Most women have one of those girlfriends who is very straightforward. They pour you a cup of coffee (Who am I kidding? It's usually wine.) and then go off on a tangent about their sordid love life or work life or family life or whatever. This is how the book felt to me. It was unapologetic, and sincere, and rough around the edges with the most tender, heartfelt depth.
I particularly found the parts where she talked about what being Leia has meant so poignant.
What I am left wondering, though, is if this book would have meant as much if I had read it previous to her death?
I enjoyed the book; my initial reaction to it on goodreads was a four-star rating (from the possible five). But how much of that was the gut reaction to the loss of Fisher? How much of that was the bittersweet experience of reading her own words, some of which seemed almost surreal?
“If anyone reads this when I have passed to the big bad beyond I shall be posthumorously embarrassed. I shall spend my entire afterlife blushing.”
I don't know. And I am not entirely sure that it matters, because we will never now get the chance to read this in a world where Carrie Fisher is still kicking ass, dropping tidbits like this one:
“The one I wore to kill Jabba (my favorite moment in my own personal film history), which I highly recommend your doing: find an equivalent of killing a giant space slug in your head and celebrate that.”
If you are a fan of Fisher's, or of Star Wars, or both, you are probably going to like this book. You might like it even if you are none of the above (oh god, I need to stop marking tests soon), but that part I don't know about for sure, because, really, who is not a fan, or at least a respectful observer, of either of these entities?
I'd love to hear about your experiences reading this book, or one of Fisher's others. I am deciding which one, if any, of her other books I should move up to a higher priority on my to-be-read list.
Please comment below, and don't forget to subscribe to my site to get my monthly newsletter. The next one is coming out soon, and I am so excited for it! (Spoiler alert: You get to meet my protagonist!)