Bridget Jones's Diary

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Summary: Hilarious book (and i'm a man)
Review: This is one of the funniest books i've read even though i'm a man. Anyone who is depressed about themselves should read this. Brilliant.

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Summary: Like a bad sitcom, Bridget continues
Review: A book filled with gimmicks. Supposedly the female eqivalent to HIGH FIDELITY (but never reaching as far as Hornby's witty prose)Bridget is a one-liner carried through a hundred or so pages. Must lose weight. Must find a man. Must find a brain! Ever wonder what the cheerleaders you went to high school with were doing? Bridget's a good update. Mildly funny.

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Summary: Couldn't put it down...
Review: This is a really funny, light read. Two of my friends have told me I could've written it. Single women will totally identify with Bridget.

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Summary: A fun, courageous, and psychological book; and hilarious!
Review: I must dissent to the Singaporean's evaluation "Pathetic." Now, I did object violently to "The Bridges of Madison County," a shameful compilation of trendy types (rugged photographer, forlorn Italian woman) and fashionable traits (smokes but does not eat meat, slow dances, is the uber-lover) exploiting the conditioned uniformity of plebeian thought, and condoning adultery to boot. But despite the surface similarities between Bridget Jones and Madison County (e.g. a "chick book", riding on contemporary reference, hinging on romance, etc.), Bridget Jones does not ever attempt to exploit a person's intelligence or lack of it--rather, it I would not say Helen Fielding's work helps us realize that our own empowerment is transient (it disappears when a sensitive nerve is touched) and, happily, so is our melancholy. The first-person, diary format of Bridget Jones helps us enter a mind in a variety of psychological states, and thus helps us validate our own divergent psychologies. But don't get me wrong-- I would not say that Helen Fielding's work is "Brilliant" in the sense that Henry Fielding's work is so, but Bridget Jones' Diary has no pretensions to be high art, and so should not be judged according to such standards. Absence of pretension is the work's particular merit. If the work is even semi-autobiographical, the author has shown great courage; if it is a fiction, it enters successfully into the vicissitudes of pride and shame, confidence and dismay, that all of us experience in varying degrees. I would never share my journal with anyone. This is why Bridget Jones' Diary is a refreshing, encouraging read for any young person, even a man (I am male and a graduate student of English literature) who has been known on occasion to be an "emotional f***wit" to women. In a sense the book leaves you saying "At least I'm not as bad as this," while also reminding you that you are something like this, that you are inconsistent, that you have your foibles, though you conceal them to the best of your might. I have some admiration for the author especially for her somewhat Jamesian ending: not what you'd expect, nothing given away, neither just desserts nor a fairy tale gratuity. I give the book a 9 rating for all these reasons, and I only give the book a 9 rating because 10 is superlative. What's most important is the book's comic value: for that alone it is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: The funniest book ever
Review: After reading Bridgte Jones's Diary in the Independent (London) for two years I was ecstatic when the book came out. This is so true to life it made me laugh out loud on an airplane, prompting a Bridget Jones like experience when the man sitting next to me gave me his phone number. Read this book and then loan it to all of your mid-20s friends. It is even more funny after living in London and having had similar experiences.

Rating:
Summary: v. v. good
Review: Read this book on the flight back from London -- didn't get a wink of sleep and could barely stifle the giggles. Recommended to three people before the plane landed in Chicago. This is my life . . .but no sign of Darcy.

Rating:
Summary: Pathetic
Review: Following the juvenile rantings of a thirty-year-old woman who is obsessed with her weight and lack of boyfriend hardly seems worth a place on any best-seller list. It is a sad commentary on the emotional and intellectual state of the "average" thirty-something woman that this book has done so well. Bridget is a pathetic character - insecure, unimginative, and borderline hysterical. And it's not even funny!

Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read all year--hilarious and "true"
Review: If I had to choose one word to describe this book, it would be "brilliant." I loved this book. Couldn't put it down. Laughed out loud trillions of times. Buy this book. You'll thank me!

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Summary: Nice men should read
Review: I bought a copy for all the women in my life ( wife, sister, mother - daughter too young ). I read it myself and wept with laughter. It made me embarrassed to be male and gave me a genuine insight in to what it must be like to be female and thirty something. I think. But most of all it's funny.

Rating:
Summary: viva bridget
Review: This book was sent to me by a friend in London, who thought I might like it. i laughed, I cried, I passed it on to everyone I know. spice what? Bridget is true girl power, why isn't she getting movies and lollipops?