THE EDGE OF REASON by Helen Fielding

Title: The Edge of Reason (Bridget Jones #2)

Author: Helen Fielding 

Genre: Chick Lit / Humour
Originally Published: 1999

Page Count:424 pages
Published by: Pan Books

Date Read: 10th July - 14th July 2014

This sequel carries on right where the previous one left us. Another year; another diary. Again it follows Bridget's life, her career, her love life, her mishaps, and for the most part it is funny, but I couldn't help feel the whole novel was redundant. 

The novel is kind of an exact replica of the first one. The events that happen to Bridget in life don't seem to be very 'life-changing' even though a lot of them certainly would be. I don't understand. She begins the novel happy because *slight spoiler from book one* she has a boyfriend. Wow. Well done, Bridget. But as soon as life loses its equilibrium of romance, Bridget is of course desperately trying to live life as a singleton, which naturally, for her, is the worst thing in the world. The only character I really love is Shazza, she's hilarious and tells Bridget when she's being pathetic. 

The novel does have its really funny moments. There's a part in which she gets to interview Colin Firth (a bit ironic, haha), and I just found it hilarious and relatable. I would probably act the same way if I had to interview, say, any of these men:

WOW! Isn't that a work of art? 

Now I may be looking at this too critically but one thing that really frustrated me about these two books in the series is Fielding’s characterisation of her gay characters. If we look at the gay people in the novel, they are either: sexually deficient and therefore shag anything that moves and whore themselves out there, incredibly pretentious and stuck up, or some form of older sexual piranha whose prey is the younger generation. I realise that Fielding exaggerates stereotypes throughout the novel for comic relief, but I just hope these stereotyped characteristics stay in the nineties, and with her 2013 sequel, Mad About The Boy, we find some level of maturity and character growth when it comes to Bridget’s perception and the author’s writing.

I find it rather of low wit to rely on exaggerated stereotypes for cheap laughs and it did kind of annoy me that it was that in which the author relies to make comedy. Of course Bridget's tribulations were sometimes hilarious themselves, which really made the novel great in the end. 

I seem fairly negative about this book, but how can I stay negative when there's that beautiful picture up there. Just stare at it. It's nice.
Anyway, I ended up rating this a 3 stars. It's decent, but I don't think I'll carry on with Bridget. I hope she finds some happiness and isn't a depressed single again, clinging to some form of respectability by having a boyfriend. Note to anyone reading this, as Jude says, being single is good. Amen. But damn, those men up there.