Author: Helen Fielding
Originally Published: 1996
Published by: Picador
Page Count: 336 pages
I think we all know the story of Bridget Jones by now, but if not, the novel is essentially the thoughts of Bridget, a 30-something singleton, desperate to quit smoking, lose weight and gain a boyfriend. It's all very simple.
The format of the book, obviously, is a diary. The novel is divided into months and each month has a collection of entries throughout that month. The entries can be at times monotonous and contrived. Bridget is so desperate for one man, Daniel (her boss), to take notice of her that many consecutive entries are simply: why hasn't he emailed me back? why doesn't he notice me? why won't he flirt with me? where is he? - One side of me was screaming inside: Get Over It! Why are you so desperate? You don't need a man! But to be fair, Bridget is a pretty good depiction of a lot of people. I have, and I'm sure most people have, spent minutes, hours, days, weeks (maybe - hopefully not), pining over someone to get back to them, to take notice of them. It may be pathetic but sometimes, that's life.
With that aspect of life does come some startling realisation that they're not worth it and your friends have been right this entire time. Which brings me to the characters. Bridget, aside from being desperately single, is incredibly funny. She talks about 'fuckwittage' and things being 'v.g.', she is actually quite interesting to study at times, as I'm sure she is real in many shades of each of us. She messes up, climbs up fireman's poles instead of sliding down them, she's infectious. Her friends are brilliant, albeit stereotyped and one-dimensional at times. Her gay best friend, Tom, epitomises the gay lifestyle that has so been characterised on television. In a way it's insulting but in a way it's also truthful and provides comic relief and sound advice. Bridget's other friends are hilarious, having terrible boyfriends or husbands, and succumbing to the new fad in self-identity and spirituality. They're people you know and people you can laugh and relate with.
Bridget's mum was a personal favourite, probably showing the main reason Bridget is v. desperate. Her mum's overbearingness is tragic yet relatable (AGAIN!) - I'm sure this is an autobiography and not fiction. The lead male characters of Daniel and Mark are pretty boring. Daniel's a chauvinist, which is good because the novel made me hate him. Mark Darcy is a bit boring and isn't as likeable as one would think.
I've rambled far too much. Often like Bridget. Her diary extracts do become very narrative-like, with whole conversations put in with speech marks and everything. It's definitely not a realistic diary, but to be fair, I don't think it'd be half as interesting if some conversations weren't transcribed.
In the end I did enjoy this, it was at times stupid and monotonous but the initial opening became very funny and [trying to find a word that isn't 'relatable']... relevant (?). I don't know. I enjoyed it mostly, but the ending was predictable and boring. I may read the sequel if I need some easy reading. 3.5 stars.
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