Shockaholic

October 10, 2011
In this funny and sad memoir, Fisher (Wishful Drinking) tackles her difficult decision to pursue ongoing electroshock therapy, an unpopular medical alternative which she lauds as a last-ditch effort to alleviate the pain of living her particular life: "I was in pain squared, pain cubed, pain to the nth power." Writing with tremendous wit, ample self-deprecation, and a thinly veiled and deep-seated anguish, she shares stories about a riveting dinner with Senators Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy, and her friendship with Michael Jackson, among others. Fisher confides that she's become someone who "could be counted on to be amusing" at various public functions, frequently including "references to my infamous family." Fisher's father Eddie, whom she barely saw until she was 20, supplied her with drugs. Later, she nursed her father during his illnesses, which she writes about in the latter half of the book in a number of moving reflections.

October 15, 2011
Actress and screenwriter Fisher (Wishful Drinking, 2008, etc.) assembles "sort of an anecdotal memoir of a potentially more than partial amnesiac." The author's experience as a standup comedian comes through in the humor of the book, but change the names and Hollywood details and her stories have the qualities of those overheard on a bus: gossipy, wisecracking, profane and rambling. The second and last chapters of the book contain the most substantive material. Fisher describes her routine electroconvulsive therapy (shock treatments) for manic depression and its effects on her. While the therapy blocked her near-term memories and lacerated her vocabulary, "[i]t did for me what drugs had done for me. It was like a mute button muffling the noise of my shrieking feelings." The book ends as Fisher builds a relationship with her declining father before he passed away. In between these two chapters, the material is fluffy and bland. Fisher prattles on about Christmas Eve with Michael Jackson (his last), gaining then losing weight, her flatulent stepfather, verbal sparring with Ted Kennedy and her ex-stepmother Elizabeth Taylor. The book lacks an overall structure, reading instead like a series of outtakes from Wishful Drinking, combined with anecdotes of recent events in her life. When friend Greg Stevens died in Fisher's bed from a combination of sleep apnea and oxycontin use, she blamed herself, dove back into drugs, lost her daughter and checked into rehab. Fisher shares these struggles in a few sentences with little description or insight. Not exactly electrifying reading.

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November 1, 2011
Carrie Fisher has written another book about herself. Really? Again? you might say. Or, as Fisher puts it, Here's something about me, and here's another thing about me I don't think I told you. But her hope, as she says in the introduction, is that, upon completion, readers will say, By the last page, I had forgotten she was an overtheBeverly Hills mediocre actress. And, it's true, you do forget that, because, really, Fisher is a writer, an observer, and a keen one at that. Her way with words, even though she claims electroshock treatments have made her forget many of them, is raw and raucous. On the minus side, she only seems to want to observe her own life, and having done that before, she offers a book on the slim side, as though it, like her, has been to Jenny Craig. That said, she doubled-dated with Ted Kennedy, was fast friends with Michael Jackson, and reached a rapprochement with father Eddie Fisher when she realized all she had to do was play parent to his child. Mentally ill she may call herself, but she's never boring. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fisher has hit best-seller lists throughout her writing career, beginning with Postcards from the Edge (1987). The success of her recent one-woman show on Broadway will spark additional interest in this autobiographical follow-up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)