Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding
| Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Page
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| Summary: Bridget's back, a little battered and bruised, but back none the less. Now a mother she has a whole new world of snooty teachers and alpha mums to navigate. But she'll cope with it all, if she can just have a quick shag with someone. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 400 | Date: October 2013 |
| Publisher: Jonathan Cape | |
| ISBN: 978-0224098090 | |
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Bridget, as you might have heard, is back. Some things have changed (she’s now a mother! And in her, ahem, 50s) and some things haven’t (she still has dating disasters and drinks wine as if it were water) but the most important thing of all is that she’s still Bridget, and she’s still journaling her life for our amusement.
In the olden days of her earlier diaries, Bridget’s time largely revolved around gaining weight, losing weight, drinking, trying to get laid, worrying about the suitability of her suitors, struggling with work, occasionally getting incarcerated and generally getting rather carried away obsessing over the most minor of details. She had self help books full of rules and knew that inside herself was a goddess, probably svelte and stylish, just trying to dig its way out from under the layers of Häagen-Dazs. Now she’s older, but not really much wiser, with a whole new raft of issues. Think head lice, competitive parenting, toyboys and a daughter’s friend called Saliva. Bridget is notoriously bad at picking the right guy, so it seemed right to see her still having this problem, although I really liked the ending. I thought it was about time she got what she deserved.
There must be few people who don’t know the saga of Bridget, Daniel and Mark. That said, I learned of Darcy’s demise from Twitter one Sunday morning recently. I turned to the Boy and told him, and his response was Who? The ballet dancer? Though this was also the same Boy who spotted a Facebook status of mine saying Awesome work Abs and thought I was complementing my midriff, not talking to a friend called Abby. With the exception of Mark, the gang are all back, though Daniel barely has a role here which is understandable from how the characters have moved on, but a little sad as he was surely one of the best bits of the first two books. Bridget’s mother is still interfering, and her friends are still leading her astray. It really is a full on reunion.
The whole point of Bridget Jones back in the day was her role as a depressed singleton looking for The One, so I was interested to know how it would work now she’s on the other side. She’s been there, done that, has loved and lost the man of her dreams, and since then been single and celibate for quite a few years as the children have been growing up. It’s a good time to catch up with her again, as she’s starting to dip a toe back in the dating pool. Of course being 2013, things have changed. Dating has moved online, away from bars and clubs, especially for single mothers with babysitter issues. And then you can imagine the hilarity that ensues when she joins Twitter. I used to read the diaries and think of Bridget as a grown up, something I wasn’t yet. Now I see her as older, and a little, dare I say, past it? Case in point: her Twitter, her texting and her use of the word shag. Who even says shag any more? She’s someone who is really trying, but perhaps trying a bit too hard. It was adorable in the way old people using the interweb are.
I saw the first Bridget Jones film while living in Austria, where it was neatly called: Bridget Jones: Chocolate for Breakfast. They clearly meant this as a shocking thing, something that would immediately show you what kind of girl she was. I don’t think they expected the obvious (to me) response of… well, what’s wrong with that? A little Pain au chocolat, some Nutella or even a bit of Hotel Chocolat on a Sunday? All ok. As I made my way through this latest instalment, and found myself reading about her eating grated cheese from the bag just as I was doing the exact same thing, I came to the scary realisation that we might not be too different, she and I. And therein lies the beauty of the Bridget Jones series for me. She is such a relatable character, and the book is so easy to read, that it’s impossible not to enjoy it. She can be hapless at times, but in an always endearing, never infuriating, way.
I was a little upset by the massive jump between books, not because this one isn’t ace, but because I think Bridget would have been a hilarious character to follow through wedding planning and pregnancy. By this book she’s back to her old ways, so it would have been interesting to see whether she did have a blip of a few years where she mellowed and was a little less neurotic. But that’s my only criticism. I could not read this fast enough, and it made me want to go and re-read the originals at once because it reminded me how much I’d loved spending time with the 30 year old Bridget in the first place. Definitely recommended, fans will not be disappointed.
Thanks go to the publishers for sending us this title.
Diaries really do make easy reading. We also give thumbs up to The WAG's Diary by Alison Kervin
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