Amazon.com Review In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget confides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not to mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideous in every way)." In 365 days, she gains 74 pounds. On the other hand, she loses 72! There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for the right man. Alas, here Bridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss. But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The boss even contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent.
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
Product Description Bridget Jones's Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, "How's your love life" with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, the diary has touched a raw nerve with millions of readers the world round. Read it, laugh and crash your head onto the table before you cry, "Bridget Jones is me!"
"Screamingly funny." --USA Today
"Bridget Jones is channeling something so universal and (horrifyingly) familiar that readers will giggle and sigh with collective delight." --Elle
"Hilarious but poignant." --The Washington Post
"This juicy diary tells the truth with a verve as appealing to men on Mars as it is to Venusian women. A." --Entertainment Weekly
"An unforgettably droll character." --Newsweek
"Bridget's voice is dead-on . . . will cause readers to drop the book, grope frantically for the phone and read it out loud to their best girlfriends." --The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Fielding. . .has rummaged all too knowingly through the bedrooms, closets, hearts and minds of women everywhere." --Glamour
"Good-bye Rules Girls, hello Singletons...Endearingly engaging." --The New York Times Book Review
Bridget Jones's DiaryJanuary 29, 2010 Nelaine Sanchez(Miami, FL USA) So I picked up Bridget Jones's Diary because I just simply wanted to read and laugh a little and enjoy a lot and I was not disappointed. I have seen the movies and I definitely enjoyed them - but I've always wanted to get a deeper feeling for Bridget and thus the book has been one that I've wanted to read for quite some time now.
Bridget Jones's Diary is just that - her diary entries which span a year in time. Every entry not only has what's going on in her life but also counts her calories, cigarette intake, and how much booze she drinks. Now let me tell you that just those little numbers were a crack-up. You could definitely tell what kind of a day she was having by how many cigarettes or how many drinks she had.
There were so many things that I truly enjoyed about this book: Characters that I could relate to; weighing oneself every single day, being infatuated with a guy who's no good for you, knowing it, and still obsessing over him to the point where you get no work done; good friends who love and protect you and will do anything for you (including lie to you) if the need arises; parents who try to hook you up with anyone of the opposite sex because they are terrified that you are spiraling headfirst into spinsterhood.
Bridget Jones's Diary is all that it was said to be and more. It is funny and original with a likable, funny, yet slightly neurotic heroine... just the way I like them.
I'll end it at this, it was V. good. :)
CleverJanuary 24, 2010 PricelessReads Bridget Jones's Diary turned out to be a clever book. I really liked the unique diary-esque entries. I particularly enjoyed the daily weight, calorie, alcohol, cigarette, lotto ticket totals, because it is something neurotically real. Especially because I had seen both movies before reading the book, I couldn't help but use Renee's voice as the narrator in my head. Written with British humor, with a very British style, I really enjoyed the language of the story as something different than my usual.
OminousDecember 18, 2009 Marissa My mother is sending me books again (this one and Suzie Sexpert, as if those are my options). I got this one yesterday. I read this instead of eating for the last 24 hours, since it felt fitting. I'm a little younger and already divorced, but the story felt a little painful. I think she knows about the blog.
A woman in her thirties playing a Jane Austen character (what my mom said; I don't know the book) eventually getting something, but the ending felt fake, like Helen Fielding added that because Austen would have done it and spinsters don't sell in any century. One of these days Kilgore is going to come back and find this on my shelf and leave all over again. I can't bring guys I'm dating back to the apartment with Bridget Jone's Diary in here somewhere, the pages rigid with coffee stains.
Maybe Suzie Sexpert was a better option.
The Movie Is An ImprovementJune 30, 2009 Freddie Dearest Great, great voice and humor. Really, I laughed. It was great, humor-wise.
HOWEVER,
The plot was boring and drawn out. I really think the format made many of the large events seem random. Also, she's kind of an idiot. Her attitude reminds me of the Princess Diaries, because she acts like a major teen.
Also, it was redundant. "I love [insert name here]. Let's go drink. Let's go have a fag. Let's sleep together."
WHY Darcy likes her is beyond me. If I met her, I'd be appalled.
Excellent qualityJune 1, 2009 flipflopkitties(New Jersey, USA) 0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a used audio CD purchase and I am extremely pleased with the quality. No scratches and it played perfectly, exactly as promised. The story itself was very enjoyable.
