A Star is Bored

A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane, 352 pages

Bored to tears by his graveyard-shift job, Charlie, a 20-something gay man, interviews for, and somehow gets, a job as personal assistant to Hollywood royalty Kathi Kannon. Now a semi-retired actress and author, Kathi cemented herself as a star some 30 years ago when she appeared in the biggest blockbuster science fiction film ever. Today, she lives in an oddly-decorated house on the same compound as her mother, who was a film star in her own right during Hollywood's golden age. Kathi has a quirky and brutally honest sense of humor, as well as some substance abuse and mental health problems and a cute dog that goes everywhere with her.

If this all sounds familiar, it's probably because author Byron Lane was a personal assistant to the late actress and author Carrie Fisher, AKA Star Wars' Princess Leia and daughter of silver screen star Debbie Reynolds. A Star Is Bored is theoretically fiction, but Fisher's off-beat humor and personality are as real here as they are in her many memoirs. I loved the relationship that developed between Charlie (whose Kathi-given nickname is unprintable here) and Kathi, and feel like this must be Lane's love letter to his former employer. It's certainly a fun read, especially for fans of Fisher and celebrity life.