Bridget Jones's Diary

Helen Fielding

Average Rating 6/10 (1 Review)

Now a major motion picture from Universal Pictures starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth...

A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something?

Bridget Jones is on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement. Cheered by feminist ranting with friends Jude, Shazzer and 'fag-hag' Tom, humiliated at Smug Marrieds' dinner parties, crazed by parental attempts to fix her up with a rich divorcee in a diamond-patterned sweater, Bridget is convinced that if she could just get down to 8st 7lbs, stop smoking and develop Inner Poise, all would be resolved. In this brilliantly funny picaresque tale, Fielding shows us a year in the life of a girl determined to 'have it all' - the second she's finished this cigarette and phoned Shazzer.

'A brilliant evocation of life as a single girl in a certain time... reads like Anita Loos out of Jane Austen, and any woman who has ever had a job, a relationship or indeed a mother will read it and roar.'

'I cannot recommend a book more joyfully… Hilariously funny, miraculously observed, endlessly touching.'

'Wild comedy... observed with merciless, flamboyant wit... A gloriously funny book.'

Review by Chrissi (010901) Rating (6/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 6/10
Well, I was given this to read because a friend said that I had to... so I did and boy do I regret it.

If Bridget Jones was a real person that I knew, I do not think that I would like her at all. She is just so annoying. I don't know anyone that shallow and self absorbed. I can see that some of it might be funny, and I did smile in places, but mostly I wanted to slap her and tell her to wake up.

I don't think that I need to explain anything about the book, because it has become almost entrenched in the subconscious of the nation, and the film has just made it more accessible to people. I can't imagine Hugh Grant as Daniel; he is just not subtle enough, although Colin Firth would seem like quite an effective Mark.

I must say that not knowing anyone in such a vacuous world is probably a blessing, as I don't come across people like that, and so am unqualified to say whether these are or are not caricatures of a real subclass of people. (Ouch!)

I am frightened to think that so many people identify with her, I can see in places where it might strike a chord, but if anyone can identify with all of it, I think that they might be a basket case. As for supposedly being the voice of a generation, did the person who said that come from another planet, or did they really not like the majority of women of my generation?
Chrissi (1st September 2001)