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Summary: I just couldn't stop laughing
Review: An undiscribable book. I just couldn't stop laughing. A book I could read over and over again!!
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Summary: A delightful coming-of-age story in 1980's England
Review: Sue Townsend draws the reader into the life of Adrian Mole, a 13 3/4 adolescent male growing up in England in the 80's. He muses with great humour about the politics of Thatcher, his current and future status in a stratified society, coping with the philandering of his parents to the regular measuring of his "thing". A read for every sex of any age.
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Summary: It made me laugh out loud, almost cry and definitely think.
Review: This book works on so many levels it is difficult to imagine a person not liking it. Sue Townsend has created an unforgettable cast of characters, particularly the ever fretful fussy, and disapproving Adrian. It is consistently hilarious, and peppered with biting social commentary. Another plus, since not all of us have long stretches of leisurely reading time, is that you can put it down and pick it up at a moment's notice, because of the "diary" format. No long chapters here.
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Summary: I read this book 12 years ago and haven't stopped laughing
Review: I picked up the Adrian Mole books while waiting for a train to take me back to London in 1985. The UK was lousy with advertising for the theatrical release of the same name so I thought I would find out what this Adrian Mole stuff was all about. I have read the secret diary and growing pains countless times and the dogeared copies sit by my bed. I refused to marry my husband until he read these books and he too laughed until he cried. There are occasions in life that can only be described in reference to Mole. Townsend has a breathtaking ear for dialogue and humor. I only regret that I could read these for the first time but once. Buy these books; you will never regret it.
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Summary: The Funniest Book Ever Written
Review: This book is hilarious and so true. This is a book that everyone can enjoy and relate to
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Summary: Great book for kids who THINK that they have it bad.
Review: In school, our teacher read us bits and parts of this book, but I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. I bought it and couldn't
put it down. It was DEAD GOOD. I reccommend this book to anyone
who needs a good laugh.
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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.
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Summary: Probably the funniest comic character in Britain
Review: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and the Growing Pains of Adrian Mole are, for me, the funniest in Sue Townsend's Mole series. They chronicle the agonised musings of Adrian - a sensitive intellectual, struggling with his parents, his mercurial girlfriend Pandora, his friends, Barry Kent - the school bully and the burdens of life in a cul-de-sac in 1980s Leicester.
Sue Townsend has a sharp eye for finding comedy in the minutae in British provincial life and Adrian Mole will make you laugh, cringe and despair in equal measures. The later books in the series, featuring the diaries of Adrian Mole in his adult life, while less funny than the first two, are also well worth reading for Mole fans.
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Summary: Another must-read for adolescents
Review: This is not a well-known book. In fact, I think I just found it somewhere in Amsterdam or Switzerland when I was a child (1980's), and I picked it up for the hell of it.
I can't believe this book is not included in the halls of classic children's literature. It's funny, often realistic, and very insightful.
There is so much about Adrian's thoughts, feelings, and misadventures that speaks to all of us. I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me this is really someone's diary.
Also included are details about modern British history. There is something to learn there, as well.
This one's definitely a sleeper. Get it!
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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.
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