As Bridget would say Gaaaaaah! (The Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding)

Member Name: stickywicket

Product:	The Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding
Date:	31/05/01 (166 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Damn good read, better than the first

Disadvantages: Should have bought it from Tesco online

Should practice what I preach really, but I was desperate, I did something terrible..I...I...I... bought a book from a real live bookshop, you know the sort of places, it's full of people walking around looking at ..well..books. Some have coffee shops in them others have big sofas and bean bags. Apparently you choose your book and go up to the till thing and they want that money stuff. I was really disorientated, confused, I didn't need a mouse or a password, or my plastic, I didn't even have to wait 48 hours for my purchase, which was the whole point - I guess.Anyway I did it, and it cost me, £6.99, for Bridget Jones's Edge Of Reason, shocked! I only pay £3.84 for books online at Tesco.co.uk! Still as I said I was desperate.I needed garden reading material as the weather was looking good. Home, feet up let the pages turn....

Bridget's life in 1997, wriiten in the short almost childish abbreviations by Helen Fielding, which adds to the humour.Bridget's everyday thoughts, like questioning whether the sun should be so bright the morning after the night before, her logic about buying this seasons black, her continous battle with motivating herself to join the gym..and actually going more than once. Her obsession with obsessing, the volumes of self - help books referred to in every relationship dilemma, and choosing which self help anecdote best suits the desired result!

These things run through the book, along with her usual alchohol, cigarette and calorie intake, bur her main purpose in life - in 1997 - is to be with Mark Darcy,(who I feel is a wet blanket...) Bridget's insecurities are her downfall, especially when the manipulative Rebecca sets her sights on Mark. Supported by the outageous feminist - who just wants to loved? - Shazzer, the lovesick Jude, the domestic hell of Magda, gay friend Tom and hassled by her crazy boss Richard, dizzy Mother and her social circle Bridget gets through the year - somehow. Further
problems occur when she decides on home improvements - enter angling mad builder Gary - and eventually go on holiday with Shazzer to Thailand.

The best bits? The attempt at serious journalism in an interview with Colin Firth, three way telephone conversations with Magda while she's potty training her offspring, an afternoon looking after Magda's children demonstarting Bridget will need some seriuos self help books should she ever get the maternal instinct, and on a more serious note her feelings during the traumatic week of Princess Diana's death.

This book is a 100 times better than the first, yes Bridget is still portrayed as a dizzy airhead - but if she turned all philosophical and serious on us it just wouldn't be the good damn read it is! Although the main event is will she won't she with Mark Darcy, there is a little more to the story. Again her life is certainly more exaggerated that the average 30 something singleton, but her guilty thoughts and feelings are in some way real to all of us. There is a touch of the Jilly Coopers in some situations, big houses with swimming pools, garden parties etc, but all written with the continuing diary style.

Helen Fielding has created a character that, I hope, will not dissappear, I would love Bridget to become a Mother and a Smugmarried, with the military operation required in 'popping out for a paper', endless night feeds, birthday parties at McDonalds but we shall see.

I want more!!

Now the postie has just delivered my next book parcel, at half the price of the real world.......

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