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Product Details
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At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find Inner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight away when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has tricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern for her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far as she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'"
This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performance anxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's "emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, for instance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while our heroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "a tragic freak." Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in the London Independent and struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokes simultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't sound half as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style. She is the Nancy Mitford of the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. On the other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us all about it for years and books to come. --Kerry Fried --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Giggle fest,
By Chelsea Hammond (Algonquin, ON) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bridget Joness Diary (Paperback)
A must read for every woman!!!!! This book tells the truth about what every woman goes through during long periods of being single. All the drinking, smoking, calories counting, and lusting, is what makes this book truly like a diary. This is one book you will not want to put down once you've started it.Bridget Jones is a British woman turning 30 and still single. She not the brightest crayon in the box, and not the prettiest either, making it a lot easier to relate to character. This is not a white knight story, no unrealistic things happen to her. Everything that happens to her can happen to anyone on a day-to-day base. And never in this book does Bridget play cat and mouse with a man Although this book will not tease you intellectually, it will most certainly entertain you. If you loved the movie the book is one step up. Helen Fieldings is pure genius when it comes to describing the horrors woman put themselves through daily. I would recommend this book to anyone willing to laugh. Anyone who likes the old love story with a twisted will enjoy this book immensely, it pride and prejudice meets Alice and wonderland.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hurray for "Singleton" Bridget!,
By Jennifer J. (Okemos, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bridget Jones's Diary : A Novel (Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a hilarious and captivating read,
By "ztaspears" (St. Petersburg, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bridget Jones's Diary : A Novel (Paperback)
Bridget Jones is one of the funniest books I have ever read. We have all had our "Bridget moments". She is a thirty-something who writes down everything she eats, her weight gain and loss, her daily intake of fags (cigarrettes) and alcohol consumption. The diary starts off detailing Una's New Year's Day Curry Buffet where she's asked "How's your love life?" She thinks to herself, "Oh God. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't walk up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'" This is just one example of her engaging humor. While at the party, her parents try to set her up with Mark Darcy, a boy that she used to play in the wading pool with as a child while she was running around naked. She sees him and immediately disqualifies him as a potential candidate because he is wearing a V-neck diamond patterned sweater. "As my friend Tom often remarks, it's amazing how much time and money can be saved in the world of dating by close attention to detail. A white sock here, a pair of red braces there, a gray slip-on shoe, a swastika, are as often as not all one needs to tell you there's no point writing down phone numbers and forking out for expensive lunches because it's never going to be a runner." And so the diary goes. She later talks about her moments at work where she has ongoing e-mails with her boss's boss, Daniel, about the length of her skirt. This book is a must-read! I have already purchased Edge of Reason and can't wait to begin reading it.
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