Excerpt
What do you do when a girlfriend’s 60th birthday
party is the same day as your boyfriend’s 30th?
Is it wrong to lie about your age when online
dating?
Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of
your children has head lice?
Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his
assistant?
Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that
wood?
Is sleeping with someone after 2 dates and 6 weeks of
texting the same as getting married after 2 meetings and 6 months of letter
writing in Jane Austen’s day?
Pondering these, and other modern
dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of single-motherhood,
tweeting, texting and rediscovering her sexuality in what SOME people rudely
and outdatedly call ‘middle age’.
The long-awaited return of a
much-loved character, Bridget Jones: Mad
about the Boy is timely, tender, touching, witty, wise and bloody
hilarious.
Author
Helen Fielding is the author of Bridget
Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and was part of
the screenwriting team on the films of the same name. Bridget Jones: Mad
About the Boy is her fifth novel. She has two children and lives in
London and sometimes Los Angeles.
Characters
Bridget Jones is a confused widowed mother of
two who leads an undisciplined life and in spite of being of fifty one years of
age is highly uncertain about what she wants from life. She is witty and
insecure. More importantly, she is ALONE.
Her
friends, Thalitha, Tom and Jude are people who strive hard to make their
friend’s life better and happier. They stand by her and offer best advice.
However, many a times, they fail to understand her.
Roxster
is a YOUNG and sensitive man. He is in his late twenties and has a heart for
Bridget. His love is uncorrupted and immature at the same time.
Billy,
Bridget’s son and Mabel, her daughter and PERFECT; they talk and behave to
their age and ooze with childish innocence.
Mr
Wallakar, Bridget’s children’s school-teacher is sensible and a man with a
past. He is mature and organized.
Rebacca,
Bridget’s neighbor is all ears for Bridget. She fills the vacuum in Bridget’s
life.
Other
characters like Bridget’s mum... Chloe –
nanny... the leatherjacketman.... and so many others.... They all leave
a mark!
What I think
The
book is a joy read. It is a little over 200 pages and an assured page turner. I
particularly enjoyed the writing style. It has dates and times. It gives us a
feel that we are skimming through the diaries of Bridget Jones. There is no
lame elaboration or descriptions. It is a journal of several events that
unravels gradually. It is witty and the editing is very crisp. I loved the
parts involving Bridget and her kids.
Though
I don’t want to give away the fun, I have to admit that I loved the nits bit.
It was funny and ouch, I almost felt like my scalp is itching too!
But...
I
don’t understand why Bridget and everyone in her life think that there is no
life for her without a man in her life. Her desperate attempts to find a man
coupled with the plethora of ideas about how-to-find-a-right-man is a little
too irritating. Many a times it makes us wonder when the book will end. If the
writing and editing was not crisp enough, then, the book would have been a
boring and exasperating read.
Further,
I couldn’t comprehend how beautifully the book’s title blends with the plot.
Should you read it?
Yes,
if you enjoy chick-lit. And if you want to kill some time and if you are also
feeling as lonely-uncertain-single as Bridget herself!
Rating
3/5
Thank you
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