Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding

Title: Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding

Genre: Contemporary Humour, Romance

Synopsis

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 came across the adverts for Bridget Jones Baby one day a few weeks ago and I decided one quiet Saturday night to pop Bridget Jones Diary on. It had been a while since I had last watched it and my best-friend talks about her love for it all the time, after re-watching it and remembering how awfully funny I found it and how much I enjoyed the movie I decided to check the book out and it is safe to say I was surprised by my reading experience in more ways than one.

Firstly I tend to read A LOT of Young Adult or New Adult books so this one was a little bit different for me, the book itself was very different to the movie for example Bridget has a brother?! Of course movies have a time crunch and they have to cut out a lot of the nitty and gritty but I found that the book was almost a different story, there was a lot in their that we miss from the film such as pregnancy scares, police searches, family drama and of course relationship drama.

Being a single 22 year old (yes I’m that old) I have to say I found the book refreshing and funny, a perfect book for my long train journey commutes into university. Whilst Bridget truly over thinks most of her decisions, I do find her very relatable for example I’m sure we have all been to a family event and dreaded the inevitable questions (because they always come) of ‘do you have a boyfriend yet’. That’s one thing I know for a fact me and my friends truly dislike, for some reason the fact I’m happy and have a job and studying for my university degree couldn’t be enough – I need that man on my arm too.

The only downside for me in this book was Bridget’s mum, she was just too much and very annoying. I just wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. She was incredibly frustrating, opinionated and thought she was better than everyone else. If she did something wrong she merely forgot about it or pretended it didn’t happen or exist. Whilst the mum in the movie (if you have seen it) is rather selfish, book mum is worse. She also does a lot more bad stuff than movie mum which I won’t spoil but to put it simply she has a run in with the police…

Despite this the comedic moments outweighed the annoying parts of the book, I really enjoyed it. It was light-hearted and held a steady pace, I would start reading as the train took off and then the journey would fly by for me, which was perfect because I love being able to escape from the crowded carriage. One thing in particular which I found rather funny was the fact that the book mentioned Colin Firth and I found that funny because of course he plays Mark Darcy in the movies. However you also therefore have to separate the film from the book otherwise if you picture Mark Darcy played by Colin Firth then it could get confusing picturing Colin Firth and Mark Darcy together…. ( 2 Colin Firth’s?!)

As mentioned previously I found this book refreshing and honest and another way that came across for me was the fact that Bridget falls in love and that man – Daniel, isn’t right for her so she has to search again. I liked this because we don’t have a boy meets girl and they immediately fall in love story, we have a girl struggling with being single and finding a date and then she meets someone but it isn’t happily ever after and she’s back out their looking again. This is relatable and true to life and I appreciated that.

Overall I really enjoyed Bridget Jones Diary and I think this was a 5 star read for me because I was able to escape and lose myself in the story and I found it an extremely funny and refreshing look at a single woman’s life in the city of London. It offers an honest portrayal, Bridget has all these hopes and aspirations that are far-fetched and the book doesn’t take some wild turn to have her get all these she has her reality stick with her that she has to work hard through life…. Even at her diet.

Furthermore the book is also written partially in Diary format so we get to see Bridget’s inner most thoughts alongside her alcohol intake, cigarettes and calorie count…

I think I will definitely try out the other books in this series to see what happens and how they differ from the movies.

Have you read Bridget Jones Diary? Let me know in the comments your thoughts or if you’ve seen the film! I still am yet to see the new film Bridget Jones Baby and I REALLY want to so please don’t spoil it for me! XD

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Useful Links

Goodreads  | Goodreads – Helen Fielding