Hey, it was 70p in a charity shop! I like to try and ingratiate myself to my own ‘target market’, as it were. I know, I know, a bit slippery of me……And, yeah, I still feel a little uncomfortable about reading such obviously girlie material……
Anyway, can someone please confirm for me that Helen Fielding was intentionally playing with the structure, devices, etc. of the truly great girlie book, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ all through the Diary – I know there’s a thunderingly heavy hint (one of the male leads being called ‘Darcy’, an’ all) but I’d just like it confirmed: Fielding is being playfully girlie with P&P, right ?
I don’t mean to be obtuse, but I suspect it rather depends on what you like and who you are; If you’re a 24-34 year-old professional woman living in London, certainly yes. If you’re an 18 year-old bloke in Bangladesh, it may leave you a little bemused. Between those extremes, it’s anyone’s guess but enough seemed to buy the book for it to be a ‘bestseller’.
FWIW, It made me smile quite often, even if the style was getting tired rather quickly. Nothing terribly original but a fun perspective on an urban creature with whom I’m not entirely unfamiliar. I’d imagine it translates to women everywhere: Fun and frothy.
<Perhaps this is a spoiler thingy…>
I did think there were some interesting art imitating art and life moments beyond P&P. For example, Bridget stays in one evening to watch the BBC adaptation of P&P – the infamous one with Colin Firth / Darcy coming out of the lake – and then Firth later stars in the film version of BJD……Then Bridget is asked to respond to the Hugh Grant blow job thing and Grant later becomes the other lead in the BJD film. And they’re the only two famous names in the book……which is strange…
[spoiler]The basic plots of the two books are virtually identical. Boy meets girl; boy and girl take an instant dislike to one another; girl pursues another romance with cad; boy knows cad from way back and announces he’s a cad, which annoys girl; cad abruptly becomes engaged to someone else; girl’s idiotic relative runs away with unsuitable suitor and causes a tremendous scandal; boy pursues them and fixes up scandal; boy and girl eventually reconcile.
Bridget’s parents, at least at the beginning of the book, owe a lot to the elder Bennetts (overbearing mother perpetually trying to get daughter married off, long-suffering father who occasionally steps in to rescue daughter from these attentions). [BTW, as an Austen fanatic, I don’t really like what Fielding did with her dad’s character later – I think a properly updated Mr. Bennett would have been much more resilient, not to mention more sarcastic. Harrumph.] [/spoiler]
I guess I no longer have to feel ashamed about having spent last Thursday reading Bridget Jones’ Diary, despite the fact that I have far, far too many degrees in English to contemplate doing such a thing. Sometimes those bits of sheepskin come in handy…
[Upon preview] Don’t Julian Barnes and Nick Hornby also count as famous names? Or are actors the only people who matter any more?
I read it and liked it. I did notice that Bridget weighed about 10 lbs less than she did in the film. It was bad enough seeing a delicious Renee Zellweger going on about being overweight at app. 135 lbs, having the character obsess over her weight at 125 lbs. seemed damn weird to me. That’s women for ya, though.
Fielding wrote Bridget Jones as a parody of P&P. She names her main character Darcy. She has Bridget have a mad crush on Colin Firth, who played Darcy in the BBC version of P&P. Then they make a movie and they cast Colin Firth as the Bridget Jones Darcy. Then Fielding writes a sequel in which Bridget interviews Colin Firth.
Missed the Hugh Grant reference though, so I probably will never read the book again or my mind might explode.
The book isn’t bad…my sister loved it. I’d rather have re-read Pride and Prejudice.
I thang yew Fretful for the confirmation. Of course I knew, but it’s amazing how the confidence can drain when considering (somewhat) gender-orientated material. In addition to your list, here are a couple of things that sprang to my mind:
How, in the modern way, her circle of friends becomes her family; the equivalent of the Bennett sisters (including gay man) – Bridget’s sibling being a very minor, nearly non-existent, character and friends are all-important.
Also, how the modern Darcy has a huge house in Holland Park……and he disappears to Portugal for a while to sort out (financially) the problems concerning the cad (and hints of saving Elizabeth / Bridget’s father’s house at considerable personal cost).
Btw, I vaguely recall Barnes being mentioned (I think) but still can’t recall Hornby – I’m sure you’re right though.
And I do agree with you on what Fielding did to the upstanding and decent Mr Bennett character, although I wonder if it was a comment on modern day fathers (in general) not being up to mustard ? Charmed, I’m sure.
Badtz Maru – No idea about the film and I’ve never seen that actress as far as I know. BJ’s weight is in the right range for your urban, not-yet-breeding, late 20’s London bird, though. Dangerosa – I saw the sequel – is it ‘On the edge of sanity’, or summin ? – in the charity show but, at the moment, just the original is fine. I agree the idea of BJ interviewing the real-life actor Colin Firth is enough to drive me to drink….oppps, to late ! Very interesting intertwining of life and art.
Hey ! check out the spoiler tag !!
The thing about satire (which I assume this was) is, you have to be able to see yourself in it. I don’t find any humor in someone who obsesses about calories and “alcohol units” but otherwise can’t organize her closet, let alone her life.
Or who takes Cosmo advice at face value.
Drunkenness plays in live action (AbFab, anyone?) but not in print.
I got tired of the device of “crisis—no, false alarm”: My dad’s suicidal! Oh wait, he’s fine. I’m pregnant! Oh wait, I read the stick wrong. My friend is being abused by his partner! Oh wait, he had plastic surgery. Ha ha ha. Either take the plot in a new direction or stop playing around.
The diary device in itself is weak. It worked with the Adrian Mole books because Adrian is a teenager and is supposed to have the attention span of a gnat. But adult characters need more exposition than you get from sound bites.
And even though I never read P&P, I knew, the minute Darcy was presented, that she would end up with him.
A much better take on the single-twentysomething-with-impossible-ideals is With the Next Man Everything Will Be Different. It was published in Germany, but it translates excellently. And since it’s first-person narrative, the characters and situations are given a lot more detail. I love the scene where the main character attends a surprise birthday party for her friend’s fiance. Eight people, one platter of cheese cubes, and the big-ticket gift—a tandem bicycle—ready to be wheeled out and create havoc when the fiance sees it. “It was as casual as a dentist’s waiting room.”
IANA Smug Married, but I agree with Rilchiam in thinking the book was v. annoying. My friends and I had followed Bridget Jones when the book was serialized in The Independent newspaper. (That’s right: the entire book had already appeared in the newspaper, about a year before publication. Can’t see that ever happening in the US.) In small doses, it was OK to read, off and on. It seemed like a chaotic picture of “life in the big city.” The “sound bite” theme of the writing worked.
All together, it was hard to digest. Bridget seemed transformed from someone bravely swimming against the tide of an anarchic modern existance to…well, what Rilchiam said.
Well, Rilch, I have to think there may be something to you not being able to relate. Having only recently transformed into Smug Married myself, I understand the character all too well.
The constant barrage of “When are you getting married? Why aren’t you married yet? You really ought to get married and have babies, you know. How 'bout if we help you get married?” is annoying at best and sometimes enough to make you dream of homicide, and the older you get the more intense it gets. The behavior of Bridget’s Smug Married friends rings pretty true to me.
The “crisis–false alarm” thing works solely because it fits the character’s personality. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I know several people who are exactly like that. Life for them is a giant soap opera, all the time. The funnier ones recognize that and can poke fun at themselves, but some just don’t see it.
The diary device also works with this particular character’s personality. She knows she ought to not be this way as a 30-something, but she is anyway. The divide between what she is and what she thinks she ought to be is what drives the plot. Her mum and Una Alconbury and all the Smug Marrieds could nag all they wanted, and it wouldn’t really bother her if she didn’t, deep down, think they were right. The whole book is her trying to achieve Mum’s goals in her own way.
(Bridget is, by the way, in her 30’s, not her late 20’s. She specifically mentions it several times.)
FWIW, I have swum in those waters and I did think it described the world of ‘girliedom’ pretty accurately - life is full of little ‘oh-my-God-you-won’t-believe-what-just-happened’ dramas for this cultural group. Frankly, it’s one of the reasons they’re still single ! IMHO, obviously
I suppose I also agree – to an extent – with CCL’s point about BJ trying to achieve her mothers goals in her own way but……only to the extent that Elizabeth Bennett was trying to achieve her loony mothers’ goals in P&P: Despite everything, these are both independent, strong-minded women.
Ultimately surely, it’s a will-they-won’t-they love story, and we all know they will ! Damn, in P&P it’s even more obvious but it doesn’t prevent you from enjoying every minute of the journey.
Anyway, thanks everyone for your responses; v.v.v. good
