| The second entry in the Bridget Jones books and it takes what’s ridiculous and goofy about the first one and really adds in some more. What I do really about this book is similar to something I really like about Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” implied by the movie “The Graduate” which is that romantic comedies are great and all, but what happens after? Well, “High Fidelity” has another 100 pages or so, and this book is the sequel to the romantic comedy and is about whether or not a relationship can even take off the ground (not even to speak about lasting). So I do think it’s great that Bridget Jones’s obsessive cataloguing of her alcohol, her eating, her smoking, her obsessive thoughts etc have to carry on into the actual relationship. I also really like how little other people actually exist in this book. Yes, they exist, but only kind of when defined through the lens of not only her specific kind of narration but also her narrow perspective as a person.
I also like the meta parts of the book, which are actually hard to parse out here such as how aware is the book of the movie version, which might not have come out yet, but will be coming out soon. Mark Darcy is played by Colin Firth but also Mark Darcy is partially based on Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, but also there’s a bunch of references to Colin Firth as Darcy in both books, and in this book Colin Firth plays himself, being interviewed by Bridget. What I don’t think works here is the farcical elements such as the trip to Thailand, the emigre stuff, and even huge parts of the builder character. I know it’s a farce, but it’s too much. Photo: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/363752.Bridget_Jones |
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason – Helen Fielding (2001)
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding