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Loading... Bridget Jones's Diary (1996)by Helen Fielding
 akreese | May 16, 2013 |  This is one of the few books that I’ve re-read and been a bit disappointed. I loved this book when I first read it as a freshman in college. Re-reading it still brought a lot of laughs, but also a bit of frustration. Bridget gets herself into the most ridiculous situations. I understand that those can be hilarious, but they are also a bit frustrating. It’s also hard to read her berating herself for being so “overweight” when she usually barely clears 120 lbs. In one scene she reaches her “perfect” weight and all of her friends think she looks sick because she is too skinny. I do love the style, the quick diary entries make it hard to put down. I love her friends and her poor long-suffering father. I also think it’s a really well-done parody of Pride and Prejudice. It’s unique enough to stand on it’s on, instead of just being an exact copy. BOTTOM LINE: I still liked it a lot, but no longer love it. (  ) bookworm12 | May 7, 2013 | The film is better than the book, purely because the actors take a relative turd and make it charming. This book is pretty much "say obvious things that women (and people in general) worry about". Nope. (  ) heterocephalusglaber | Apr 26, 2013 | I had fun with this book. I'd already seen the movie, which was fine, and I enjoyed noting the differences. The fun thing about the book is you spend plenty of time inside Bridget's (very crazy) head and get to know her crazy friends more. As someone who is constantly pushing herself to improve and become better in multiple ways, I related to Bridget. I especially love the New Year's resolutions she makes at the beginning of the diary -- they range from serious (improve career, save more money) to the less weighty (put photos in photo albums) -- just like mine! ( ) JillKB | Apr 4, 2013 | Usually fun, occasionally funny, peppered with moments that were unbelievably annoying. (  ) kszym | Apr 3, 2013 |
 O.K., James Joyce it may not be, but show me the woman to whom this sort of stream-of-consciousness, self-assessing mental clutter is unfamiliar and I'll show you the person who will not think ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is both completely hilarious and spot on.  Is a retelling of
 Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 014028009X, Paperback)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 (retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:19:17 -0500) Bridget Jones takes readers on a tour of a hilarious year-in-the-life of a confused thirty-something singleton who would have all the answers if she could just lose seven pounds, stop smoking, and attain inner poise. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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Each day's entry starts with a log of her weight, alcohol intake, cigarettes smoked, calories consumed and lottery tickets purchased. Sometimes this log at the beginning of the chapter is just as funny as the entry following it. I may not be able to relate to the smoking and drinking, but I think struggling against giving in to self-indulgence is one of those shared human experiences to which we can all relate.
I have seen bits and pieces of the first movie, and all of the second, and I can say without reservations that I prefer the book over the movie. For one thing, I found the swearing very off-putting in the movie, while in the book I found it easy to just skim over the swear words if I felt like it. In addition (like most books) there is more content in the book that didn't show up in the movie. Plus if I'm going to be experiencing a journal, I'd rather read it than watch a movie about it.
I laughed my way through this entire book, and would recommend it to anyone who likes chick lit or books in journal form. (