Review: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

About the Book 

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Published on June 1, 1999 by Penguin Books

GoodReads Description

Meet Bridget Jones—a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:

a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise
"123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

Bridget Jones' Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she 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.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and — like millions of readers the world round — you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"

My Thoughts

I picked up this book at GoodWill for a quarter.  I'm glad that is all I spent on this book.  I don't normally review books that I don't enjoy very much, but I'm curious to see your opinions of this book in the comments below.  I had really hoped to enjoy this book because the movie was decent.  Unfortunately, this is the rare case in which the book is actually better than the movie.

Although I found many of the characters either sweet or endearing, they were all two dimensional.  I know that this book is meant to be in a diary format, but that should not mean that there are no details or no specific aspects of the adventure.  If I kissed a guy who is described like Mark Darcy, I would be sharing every little moment and my favorite parts so that I could read about them over and over again.  I would not merely skim over the wonderful parts and explain the dull ones in detail. 

I did like that, as in most diaries, there is not much effort put into world building.  This was most definitely true to form and I do give Fielding credit there.  Unfortunately, it is as though she forgot that many of her readers have never been to England.  There was absolutely nothing to go by.  A reader should not have to research every place that the character goes in order to receive the smallest mental image of the location.

I know that my opinion is rather negative, but there was one thing that I truly enjoyed about this book.  It is funny.  It is easy to see some of the mistakes Bridget makes as my own.  I believe that the comedy is the main reason that so many readers think so highly of this novel.

My Rating