The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

Rating:
Summary: A laugh-out-loud read
Review: "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4" is hilarious, a lot of the time painfully so. It chronicles the turbulent adolescence of the idiosyncratic Adrian through the time he turns fifteen. There are highlights consistently throughout the story, such as his submissions of poetry to the BBC (and the letters he consequently receives in return), his romance with the memorable Pandora Braithwaite, and his occasional references to a magazine called "Big & Bouncy" which he keeps hidden under his mattress.

Author Sue Townsend's writing is entertaining and funny throughout, and this book is a welcome change from the plethora of "teen diaries" that seem to dominate every library and bookstore's young adult section.

Rating:
Summary: Adrian Mole is ESSENTIAL reading
Review: If Charles Shultz's saying "Happiness isn't funny" is true, then this book by definition qualifies as hilarious. Adrian Mole isn't just a teenager with typical adolescent angst; he's smack dab in the middle of Thatcher's Britain, on the wrong side of the tracks.

His parents are on the skids, he has neither dress sense, social grace, looks, intelligence, nor wit, but believes himself to be intellectual and artistically gifted.

Menaced and robbed by skinheads at school on a daily basis, pining for a middle-class girl on the fast-track to the upper class he'd so desperately want to join... he is the absolute metaphor for a latter 20th century England that is no longer on the cutting edge of anything, and, like a teenager realising subconsciously he has no future, dealing with the reality that it will never live up to its past glory or future expectations.

Savagely skewering the class system, granola-crunching intellectuals, adolescence, Thatcherism, and life in the Midlands, Sue Townsend has executed a real stroke of brilliance in making Mole so clueless. As the moron he is, he cannot filter nor embellish the truth that goes on around him, but reports it through his own naive eyes. This lets us see, for example, that his best friend is less than sane with a serious identity crisis, without the psychobabble.

These are dark, brutal books and could easily be rewritten as black tragedies... much of the humor comes from a sense of "Dei gratia sum quod sum." Yet they are funnier still for being so. If you are British or British-ex-pat or in a British-inspired country like Canada or Australia, you WILL see people you know in these characters.

This really is essential reading.

Rating:
Summary: On of my favorites, (probably will be one of yours!)
Review: If you're reading this review, congratulations, you're either thinking of reading this book or you have read it and are looking for other's opinions. This is one of the best books ever, with witty realism combined with the absurd thoughts that all teenage boys have had.
Meet psuedo-intellectual Adrian Mole, a constant struggler, from his girlfriend Pandora, to trying to get his hapless poems (some about the Norwegian leather industry!!!) published, and the old codger, Burt who he visits all the time. Occasionally, he is charming, but mostly he is just goofy. His adventures are too numerous to mention on paper, (or a computer screen) you'll just have to enjoy them for yourself. His disfunctional family and life are hilarious.
I'm curious as to how a woman understands so much about how a guy can feel sometimes. If you are a teenager, used to be one, are going to be one, dated one, are a parent to one, whatever, you should help yourself understand that teenager in your life by reading this book.