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Women's Fiction

Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

List Price: $22.95
Your Price: $16.07
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great read for women
Review: This is one of the funniest, sharpest, and enjoyable books I've read in years. It's a must-read for women, especially single women. This is a great story about friendship and learning to find your "inner poise" and self-confidence. It's also subject matter that most women can relate to, regardless of dating or marital status. The sequel novel is also good, but not as keen as the first book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A peek into inferior mind.
Review: Why do I express my disapproval of that book? It was intended as a light and entertaining reading for ladies - that genre is somewhere outside of critics' target range. You do not want to experience that sweet little nothing - do not read the book. Millions of readers enjoy it - so it's existence is justified.

Still I feel rather strongly about Bridget Jones's Diary. For me it's another monstrously overhyped piece of garbage to come out of Britain recently - along with Harry Potter debility. As I know from the interviews the USA was reluctant to swallow that book now it's found the way to the bookstores.

I really enjoy reading women's works starting from Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu up to Amy Tan. The books are charming and witty, full of insights - the peeks into the minds of humaity's better half.

But here we have something else. I think that many of the readers, even these not very sensitive to nuances, suspect that, but let themselves to be carried along with that wave of "screamingly funny!" and "a comic masterpiece" reviews. Not many of us are ready to admit that the book is not hilarious but only mildly amusing, often tasteless, and the main character is not an endearingly awkward misfit but the annoying and ultimately boring person with zero spiritual life.

You can count all the smileworthy jokes with the fingers of one hand. I was amused when Bridget tried to imagine herself a couple years after stopping leg-shaving and skin-peeling as a kind of Struwelpetter, but I was not roaring with laughter. The comic fear of being half-eaten by Alsatian is also funny, but when Helen Fielding belched with that joke for a dozen times more it's potential was exhausted well before the book ended.

And these statistics that precede every entry in the diary! I've made the effort of reading every one of them - they were put here for some reason. And I do not know why. They become routine very quickly, no sparkles there. To think that a human life can be judged by such parameters! Why did not she make it more "amusing"? She could include there the visits to a loo and rate them as v.g, v.v.g or just n.b . And I am sure that would be appreciated by the readers.

What's the trick? Helen Fielding wrote a book about the maladjusted semi-alcoholic, the thirtysomethingish woman that is still alone for a very obvious reasons and provided her with a Prince Charming at the end. The god from machine. The overachieving international lawyer forsook all the gorgeous Natashas of the world to fall in love with the plain-looking woman with messed-up mind. Do you remember the "witty" dialogue that preceded his final fit of infatuation? They were discussing the reasons for some dull political figure having an attractive wife and our girl came up with the explanation - He is a good shagger. How fresh and original! How very funny! How could that owner of the first-rate brain resist Bridget for a second more!

The book's reassuring message is: No matter how stupid and unexciting you are, no matter how pathetic and egoistic, the fabulously wealthy and clever male in his prime is waiting for you just around the corner. Just like Harry Potter series promise a ticket to the world of magic to the common Joe, Helen Fielding addresses the plain Jane in her bestselling piece of nothing.

And just like her fellow British millionairess-and-writer, Ms. Fielding succumbed to the worst form of sequelitis. And what do you want her to do? The lady's first book was about the refugee camps in Sudan. Who wants to read it? Let's forget the poor ones and move to something funny. Now she struck the gold and we are guaranteed the follow up - there is more money to be made. Yes, we have just one life and it's better spent with a couple millions to spare. And if the garbage can bring it let's do the garbage. Let's respect "success" in every form.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pride and Prejudice? Hardly. Entertaining? V.
Review: When this book came out I thought it looked like this cliche-ridden, trite piece of Cosmo-style fluff. Then a friend recommended it so I gave it a whirl. Sure enough, I was right all along. But hey, we can all enjoy some fluff now and then. I suspect I wouldn't enjoy it half so much if it weren't for her amusing (to Americans) London vernacular, but what the heck.

Bridget is the kind of person I avoid as much as possible - obsessive about weight, desperate about men, a sloppy drunk and extremely shallow. Then again, we've all had our phases like that in one way or another. I do enjoy the honesty about the drinking and smoking - I don't think an American woman would even be allowed to write a book like that!

It's a silly, entertaining book and I'll probably read the sequel. But please don't compare it to P&P!! Anyone can write a book and call a character "Darcy"!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Reading!
Review: Bridget relates to women who are going through bad relationships, dieting and weight loss, and dissatisfying jobs. She has her friends and families to get by and in the end all is well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: LOVED IT!!!!
Review: How is it possible that this woman wrote my life in her diary? She is so clever. Many times people would turn around and stare in my direction as i was reading this - because i was laughing so loud and hard. My only regret is that this book eventually ended. Will be buying the sequel right now!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Oh no! Im thirty and single!
Review: This book was an easy, entertaining read, a diary (duh) of Bridget Jones' everyday life as a raging Singleton living in London.

She starts off each entry with a record of her current weight, calories and the number of times she has pined over some guy. She is a good-natured pommy lass, really likeable!

Nothing really happens, per se, it's more just a chance to get to know this funny and absorbing character, to relate to her weaknesses and laugh at her misfortunes. She is confused, and not quite grown up. As a result of her state of disarray, she is not about to tie up the loose ends of the story for you. Oh well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolute Delight!!!
Review: I loved this book! It was funny, insightful and, unfortunately for me, very reminiscent of my years as a "singleton". Could not put it down and can't wait to start the sequel.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: This book made me laugh at loud several times. Even though I'm well past the age of the main character, I could certainly identify with many of her predicaments. Every woman has been through some of these situations at some time in her life. I really enjoyed it as a good summer read.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bridget Jones Diary
Review: I was so disappointed when I read this book. Had this been written 15 years ago I might have found this funny. The subject has been done before ad naseum. It's trite and boring and found the character pathetic and self absorbed. I couldn't finish the book I disliked it so.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A breath of fresh air.
Review: If you're a woman in want of an intertesting read, this book is for you. I was skeptical at first, thinking this would be yet another book on "How to land the perfect man" wrapped up in a fancy package. But, in a refreshingly honest and down-to-earth approach, Helen Fielding has offered the contemporary woman an amusing and insightful look at being single when the rules keep changing. This book is not just for the single woman, but for everyone. For those that remember what the single life was like with envy or with releif, they will find something to laugh at or even remember with a sigh. It is delightful and a fast read.


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