First of all, I wish I had known that this was an adapted one woman show, not a memoir, because this wasn't what I was expecting. Wishful Drinking is a very brief and jokey (hacky, even) performance of Carrie Fisher's life story. I was hoping for perhaps a more intimate, in depth memoir. That' not the book's fault, but it did get me off on the wrong foot.

I'm not saying this was poorly written, only that I don't want to spend any more time with Fisher after reading this. I was left feeling genuinely sorry for the state she was in. She was 52 when she wrote this, and slurs her words from all the substance abuse (I listened to the audiobook) and yet still somehow comes across as immature and self obsessed.

Wishful Drinking is a portrait of a precocious, gifted youth who is now a decaying ruin. I guess it goes to show the toll mental illness and addiction takes on a person's life.