Bookathon - F

 So many F authors.. F Scott Fitzgerald. Janet Frame. Dick Francis. Well not really. I don't read them, far too drear. I go for Funny books. 

My pick most people might not even know as an author, as most know her as Princess Leia in Star Wars. F is for Carrie Fisher. 

Carrie Fisher, apart from being a movie icon (descended from Hollywood royalty - Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher), was also known as Hollywood's leading script doctor, and author of several interesting novels - Postcards from the Edge, The Best Awful, Surrender the Pink and Delusions of Grandma. Postcards from the Edge was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep (aka Carrie) and Shirley Maclaine (aka Carrie's mum Debbie) but of course all their names were changed in the novel. You just know Carrie was mining her real life story for all these books. She once wrote, and I quote her because she is oh-so- quotable 'If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable' .. and this classic bon mot 'Instant gratification takes too long' 

Because Carrie is no longer with us, she suffered despite being world famous, from the plague of famous people the world over - drug addiction. And mental illness on top of that. She was famous from before birth because of her parents and her pictures plastered all over the tabloids and movie magazines of the day (50s and 60s) as American's sweethearts until Eddie Fisher had it off with the widowed Elizabeth Taylor. Debbie did not like that. Carrie was all of two years old. This trauma led to emotional problems and manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder - something we can now blame parental neglect for) which in turn lead to self-medicating or drug abuse. Cocaine was the A-list drug of the 80s amongst celebs, and everyone did it. 

However, writing, it turned out (not becoming a world famous Star Wars princess) was Carrie's salvation. Her novels are rip roaring reads. If you don't get all the references, that's just too bad because only super intelligent people can keep up with Ms Fisher. Or movie buffs. However it's not her semi-autobiographical roman-a-clef confessional novels that win first place on my shelf. It's this little gem of a book that is completely honest yet hilarious at the same time called Wishful Drinking. 

It's a very short book and can be read in one sitting with a can of diet coke. For non readers, Carrie made it into a one woman show, which can be seen on You-tube. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll never watch Star Wars again. 

Unfortunately her later sequels -Shockaholic (she gets electric shock treatment) and The Princess Diarist (she confesses she was confusingly in love with Harrison Ford after all, but he was just a user) don't have the same soul baring power as Wishful Drinking did. But still, one needs to confess all before one dies and go out with a bang.