Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews ” Carrie Fisher A Life On The Edge” by Sheila Weller

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews ” Carrie Fisher A Life On the Edge” by Sheila Weller. November 2019

WOW! Kudos to Sheila Weller, author of “Carrie Fisher” A Life On the Edge” for writing such a poignant, memorable, compassionate, and intriguing Biography of the life of Carie Fisher.  The Genre for this book is a Biography, and Sheila Weller has interviewed many friends, acquaintances and has done extensive research into Carrie Fisher’s life.

Sheila Weller shows us  Carrie Fisher as “Hollywood Royalty”, daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. The author does discuss that Eddie Fisher most probably had a  Bi-Polar disorder and had an addictive personality, which Carrie did inherit. Eddie Fisher did leave his wife, a young Carrie and her younger brother for a well-known actress.

The author shows us Carrie’s life from a little girl to her tragic death in 2016. Carrie had an unbelievable amount of friends, and Carrie herself was a loyal and generous friend. I was enthralled by Carrie’s life as a singer, actress, friend, daughter, writer, mother, and spokesperson.  Carrie is also shown to be a feminist in many ways. Carrie was quick-witted and intelligent.  She would question why older women in the entertainment industry would have certain expectations about their looks of youth, and men would not have that problem. Carrie would question many things.

I loved that Sheila Weller shows tremendous sympathy and compassion for Carrie Fisher’s mental illness and addiction. The author does show us that Carrie was aware that she needed help and struggled. Perhaps if there wasn’t a stigma of mental illness, when Carrie was much younger she could have gotten timely help. I would highly recommend this thought-provoking and amazing biography.