Carrie Fisher: From film star to "savage" writer...

December 1, 2019 10:27 AM

Excerpted from Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge, by Sheila Weller
posted by dfm500 (7 comments total)

“That night in the emergency room, do you recall if I threw up something I needed? ... I distinctly feel as though I’m missing something.” Pause. “But then, I always have.”

Sad to read but so elegantly written. This Galaxy misses her.
posted by mundo at 4:34 PM on December 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

I can't really bring myself to read this new book, knowing that Carrie Fisher's family is very unhappy about it.
posted by sarcasticah at 6:06 PM on December 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

I will not be buying this book. Fisher was amazingly talented and funny, but considering what her family has said about this. Just plain No.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:50 AM on December 2, 2019

Most biographies are written by people who weren't acquainted with the subject. It may be good or it may be terrible, but the family's objection seems to be that the author isn't a friend.
posted by tavella at 7:42 AM on December 2, 2019

It seems more accurate to say that the family's objection is that the author of the biography did not speak to a single one of the subject's living relatives. That's understandable when the subject is long dead and the only relatives remaining are distant, but Fisher has quite a few members of her immediate family still around and able to talk about her, which makes the choice not to talk to them more than a little bit weird.
posted by tocts at 10:18 AM on December 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm conflicted as to whether or not to read it or not. I asked for it for Christmas but my mother is scatty, so who knows if I will actually get it or not. It does sound weird that the author didn't interview the family or anything, but I don't know what the deal was there.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:29 AM on December 2, 2019

Not speaking to people like her children, her brother, and her friends is a huge omission. Most biographers would want to talk to those people, even if they ultimately decide not to use the interviews for whatever reason. Carrie's brother said it best:

"I don't understand how you can write a book about Carrie without talking to those who knew her best," he said.

To me that's not doing your due diligence as a biographer, and so I'm going to give this one a miss.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:44 PM on December 2, 2019