Bridget Jones's Diary
by Helen Fielding
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.82 You Save: $13.18 (88%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Bridget Jones's Diary
Book Review: I can't believe this is the same book that got raves!
Summary: 1 Stars
I cannot believe that this is the book that garnered such rave reviews last year when it came out in hardback. I find myself wondering if somehow I got a different copy - say a high school freshman's fiction writing assignment that was erroneously slipped into a Bridget Jones'Diary book binding. How this book could've garnered the praise it has is astounding to me. My first problem with this book is from a sheer point of view of craft. It is so poorly written that I had to re-read some sentences to understand them. Part of this, to give the author credit, was due to the strong English accent the character has, but part of it was just plain bad writing. Take an email exchange between two extremely vapid people, add a dose of indecipherable abbreviations and some alcoholic confessions and you've pretty much covered it. The book lapses back and forth between 1 dimensional characters and 1 dimensional plot. You have The Gay Guy, The Best Friend, The Cute Boss, The Bitchy Social Climber. The only character I found at all interesting was Bridget's mother who does a turn as a stereotypically wild divorcee turned talk show hostess. No one has sufficient depth that you form an emotional bond with them and hence they come off as petulent,pathetic and altogether unlikable. By the end of the book (and yes I read it through to the bloody end) I found myself in a state of such antipathy for the heroine that I wanted to smack her around and hold her face in a chocolate tray to silence her pathetic whining. To me the way the heroine acts and her attitude in her diary is a slap in the face to women everywhere, but especially single women. No woman in this book comes away unscathed by Brigit's tirade of self-hatred, neurosis, willful stupidity and catty comments. I found it highly offensive in so many ways, not the least of which being the undertone that single women are not single by choice, but merely by foul circumstance or lack of foresight.The conclusion that all single "career" women secretly desire the completion that only a big frilly wedding and chubby cherubs will bring made me nauseous. And it is -never- challenged throughout the book! I kept wanting to shout "Get some PRIDE woman. Quit whining! Grow to appreciate your independance." But alas that never happened. In the predictably "romantic" ending the reader is left wondering why any sentient human being within Brigit's whining range would find her remotely attractive, much less marriageable, so the book's conclusion feels just as forced and self-indulgent as the rest of the book. Definately ready for the recycle bin. May it's next life as parakeet paper give it some substance.Book Review: A witty book with wide appeal
Summary: 4 Stars
Bridget Jones is a woman who is so ordinary that she is extraordinary. And therein lies her appeal: Helen Fielding has created a character that practically every woman can relate with. Bridget's problems--a lack of appreciation in her job, an often-disappointing love life, a never-ending struggle with her weight--are the problems of a tremendous variety of women at some point in their lives. The fact that Bridget is a highly relatable character, however, is not enough to make her compelling; it is the manner in which Bridget faces her problems--with flair and yet an utter lack of grace--that makes "Bridget Jones' Diary" so hard to put down.
I must praise Fielding for the way that she styles her characters. All of the major characters in the book--Bridget, Mark Darcy, and Daniel Cleaver--fit a specific type: the everywoman, the gruff-yet-lovable romantic hero, the rogue. None of these characters, however, fall into the one-dimensionality that generally curses stock characters. All three feel real and true, yet they have enough general characteristics that the reader is able to take Bridget, Darcy, and Daniel as placeholders for real-life acquaintances.
I do think that "Bridget Jones' Diary" contains a few minor flaws worth noting. First, although the major characters feel fleshed out, the minor characters--particularly Bridget's group of friends, Sharon, Jude, and Tom--aren't as able to break free of the stock character curse.
Second, a large part of the charm of "Bridget Jones' Diary" is that Fielding throws Bridget into situations that are ridiculous; how Bridget handles this makes her who she is. However, Fielding sometimes pushes Bridget into circumstances that go beyond ridiculousness and enter the territory of the absurd. In those instances, Fielding undermines her own character. Bridget is fascinating because, as an everywoman, she enters situations as a real-life person, but as the hero of the book, she proceeds to deal with them in a way that most women only dream of doing. In order for this to work, the events in the book must remain grounded in reality. Thankfully Fielding largely avoids this pitfall in "Bridget Jones' Diary"-though she walks right into it in "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason."
However, as I said before, these flaws are relatively minor. Overall, "Bridget Jones' Diary" is a witty, engaging book centering on a very memorable character. I have read the book through a good half-dozen times, not to mention the numerous instances that I've read a few pages at random, in search of a quick pick-me-up-which "Bridget Jones' Diary" never fails to provide.
Book Review: Must avoid urge to describe as v.g. ...oops
Summary: 5 Stars
Everyone has been going on about the film in my office recently, saying how funny it was and how close to the book it was portrayed. Well, being a cheapskate (and not wanting to visit the cinema alone) I bought the book from Amazon ... and settled down to read it. Wow, what a blinder, I've never read a book in 3 days, but at 300 pages it was very light and quick but extremely funny. I know a few of the basics about being a 30 something and being a `singleton/smug married' and a lot of the scenarios are very true. `Based on Helen Fielding's diary in the Independent newspaper (something I didn't know), this is a novel about a year in the life of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement and Inner Poise.' Yeah, right! They've published my diary - the swines! I never even let my mother read my diary, now everyone knows what I get up to!
Seriously, if you've not picked up this book, borrow it, steal it or if you really have to - buy the ... thing, but you really need to read it (and that goes for the guys to!). The story is about Bridget, her friends Shazzer, Jude, Tom, Magda, her relationship with and between her mother and father (the storyline around these two is ingenious) and her quest to find a man and enjoy him.... for a while anyway. Despair, self-doubt, obsession and the use of really bad/good self help books are the way to go for Bridget, something of course I've never felt or used ;+).
This book goes from strength to strength, it keeps urging you to turn the pages, and even if it is just to see how many cigarettes she's smoked the next day! But the thing is, if I tell you all the bits that made me laugh out loud, it'll ruin the book, so I'm not going to! But wait for the time when she cooks the `blue soup', hilarious! In my mind I had Kate Winslet playing Bridget, Joanna Lumley playing the mother, and Hugh Grant playing Mr Darcy not Colin Firth. But as I've not seen it yet I'll not compare.
Apparently, this is a reworking of `Pride and Prejudice', not having read that book yet I can't confirm or deny, but if it's anything like this little belter it's next on my list. I'm reading the sequel at the mo, it's longer, has more swear words and the beginning is ab fab!
One criticism is that she doesn't describe finding any grey hairs, now EVERYONE knows that you get paranoid about those - maybe she doesn't have them,
All in all, even though it's a quick read, I loved it, I went straight into Waterstones to buy the sequel `The Edge of Reason', and as soon as I've got enough courage to visit the cinema on my own, I'll be there!
Book Review: Hurray for "Singleton" Bridget!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an awesome book! I had first heard about this book by seeing the movie, which was very funny. I then decided to read the book which I had heard was based upon Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Having read Austen's novel (which i did not like) I hoped that this version would be much more appealing to the 21st century reader. And, luckily it was. Bridget(a clumsy, insecure, chain-smoking Elizabeth Bennet) was lovable because of her flaws and self questioning. I think that anyone can identify with her obsessiveness over her weight, love life, and career. I thought that Bridget was also a complex character who was just trying to find her own definition of happiness in a world where TV and aquaintances are constantly trying to define happiness for her. The idea of telling the story of Bridget Jones through a diary was ingenious of Helen Fielding. It allowed the reader to go into the mind of the main character and see what she was really like without the facade of confidence that we all wear in front of others. I also enjoyed Bridget's lovable and also confused friends Sharon, Jude, and Tom. Their prescence made Bridget's behavior seem more normal and everyday. And I laughed out loud at Bridget's midlife crisis mother who is a great modern day parallel to Austen's marriage-crazed Mrs. Bennet. Her carefree and nonchalant attitude toward everything, including her own conviction, was hilarious! Her crazy antics were an overexaggeration of the things that mothers do that drive us crazy! While laughing at Mrs. Jones' crazy antics, i could also sympathize with poor Mr. Colin Jones, who was hung-out-to-dry by his wife. The last main characters are to me the most important beside Bridget herself. Daniel Cleaver is the epitomy of a modern day Mr. Wickham, a "player" or a man who uses a women for his own selfish fulfillment and then leaves without a trace. The reader can sypathize with Bridget because we have all known someone who has been used and then been left out in cold. But then, there is Mark Darcy, a modern day protrayal of (guess who) Mr. Dacry. He appears as a knight on a white horse, ready to sweep Bridget away from her annoying family and embarrasing carrer in TV. But the way he appears is very subtle but realistic. He is a shy man who does things that silent manner that seems to make the action all the more important and endearing. This novel was a joy to read, i recomend to everyone that wishes to read a book that is more about examining your own flaws and laughing at them through the main character, Bridget Jones.Book Review: Amusing? Annoying? Why, it's both.
Summary: 3 Stars
Helen Fielding's much-heralded screwball novel, "Bridget Jones's Diary" is told in the form of a diary over the course of one year, chronicaling Bridget's "Singleton" anxiety that she many never find Mr. Right, and her resentments that she feels she has to be on such a search at all. Each day's entry is preceded by a tally of her success, or lack thereof, in the struggle against the vices of smoking, drinking and calories. On one particularly stressful day, she records "cigarettes 40 (but have stopped inhaling in order to smoke more.)" Some of the entries cheat on the diary concept, in that they seem to have been written moments after the events took place, but that's no matte. Nearly all of tem have to do with men, sex ("shagging", as the Brits put it)jealousies, and her mother's attempts to force a wealthy lawyer on her. "I don't know why she didn't jsut come out with it and say, "Darling, do shag Mark Darcy over the turkey curry, won't you? He's very rich."And so it goes, from Janary 1 to December 26, detailing her Singleton's "fears of dying alone and being found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian" and her resentment / envy of the Smug Marrieds: hurrying to a pary, Bridget writes, "Heart was sinking at thought of being late and hungover, surrounded by ex-carrer-girl mothers and their Competitive Childrearing." Still, what is worse than not being a Smug Married yourself is the possiblity that one of your unmarried friends might become one: "If you are single the last thing you want is your best friend forming a functional relationship with somebody else." What it all boils down to is a 90's spin on the boy-gets-girl-gets-boy story.With 'deep regret, rage, and and overwhelming sense of defeat'Bridget learns that "the secret of happiness with men" comes through a variation on an ancient moral: Mother knows best. As a single American woman of roughly Bridget's age, there are many parts of this book that I could strongly relate to, but just as many times as I nodded in agreement with her diary entries, I found myself saying "You stupid, stupid girl!". Altogether an entertaining read, but not groundbreaking. With summer comining up, I would certainly recommend it as a good beach book, but not more than that.