Sunday 25 January 2015

Book Review: Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding.

Welcome to Bridget's first diary: mercilessly funny, endlessly touching and utterly addictive. 

A dazzlingly urban satire on modern relationships?
An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? 

Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? 

The first book of the year that I decided to read is, yes, an oldie (1996, in case you were wondering), but what I consider to be a classic. I never really got into her when I was younger, and despite loving the movies, I didn't understand the books. I was no thirty-odd feminist with friends living on her own and...well, I could have been interested in two guys, but one of them was certainly not a human rights barrister but more along the lines of cute, rowdy teenage kid. 

The only thing that has changed since then is the fact I'm a feminist now, but at least I can understand what they're talking about (I don't). 

This book is hilarious. And I don't mean breathing a little faster then I usually do, I mean actual noises came out of my mouth several times. 

It can get a little boring and repetitive at times, and there were sections in it that I felt were there just to fill up space and make the book longer. That kind of dragged. 

I do enjoy the homosexuality thrown in there, all close and personal with lack-of Bridget's love life, to really prove just how perfectly normal their relationships are and they're not out to destroy straight relationships or destroy the fabric of society (although, really, if this is what relationships are like in the real world, I want no part of it).

"Shazzer" was truly my favorite character just because of her frequent swearing. Jude, simply because of her constant complaining about a boyfriend she just wouldn't let go of, was almost my least favorite character - one step above Daniel, certainly a "fuckwit". 


As said earlier, I have no general idea of what life is like as a single thirty-something, I am only eighteen, but to me, it seems like a very humorous take on what is actually something that must be very lonely. What I found odd is the lack of single mothers and how, even though most of the relationships are broken in some shape of form, they all have partners. 

All together, I gave this book 4/5 on Goodreads, and I would recommend this to anybody, male and female alike (should probably give this a miss if you're under the age of I'd say fourteen, though).