Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary
Helen Fielding
Picador, 1996

First impression:
Much like the film but more self-deceptive and eloquent. The element of self-recognition is greater because it has more excuses in it.

Review:
I usually kindle avid resentment towards chick-lit, but read with the motivation that Bridget Jones's Diary is to that genre what Sherlock Holmes is to crime fiction. One might call it a shallow work since the plot does not offer any particular catharsis, but I think it says a lot about the modern woman and her way of reasoning, apart from being a humourous character portrait. I particularly liked the omissions of "small words", such as: "Am going to stop getting weighed and counting things every day as no sodding point", even though they made it more difficult to find a good flow in the text. As a whole, it is charming, creative and witty, horrifically stereotyped but in many ways embarrassingly honest.

Rating: Good