Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Review by Gerti

I love Bridget Jones and I'm not afraid to say it.  I'll shout it if you need me to.  I love Bridget Jones, and I love the many books (3 now) that Helen Fielding has penned about her wacky adventures.  I love that Bridget keeps track of the same crazy things I do--calories, weight, etc., but I also love that she keeps track of things I never do--like alcohol consumed or boyfriends shagged.  Having her be similar to me in some ways and different in others means I can laugh with her, and AT her, at different times, but always with the utmost affection.

In her previous diaries, Bridget had two wonderful men after her, including mark Darcy (played by Colin Firth in the movie version) which totally makes me love him, too.  Her former boss Daniel was played by Hugh Grant, and there are not two British men in the world that I adore more than Firth and Grant.  So even as I read about their adventures, in my mind I can see their gloriously handsome faces, and imagine their endearing mannerisms.  Yes, I do have it bad, than you very much.

Bridget Jones to me now is also the actress, Renee Zellweger, so as she gets her white coat stained by her daughter's hot chocolate before a major school even, I see her face, and that makes it all so much more intimate.  It's like watching the adventures of a friend, a clumsy, humorous, accident-prone, self-doubting, weak-willed friend whom I love.So in this book, "Mad about the Boy", I am not totally put off it becausd mark Darcy has died tragically.  Like helping a widow through hter days of grief, I stuck by Bridget as she tied to take care of their two kids, and make a new life for herself among the ashes.  I loved how she tried to engage with the modern world, tweeting, getting on FB (or not), and dealing with all the uber-moms at the children's school.  I liked how she found a young man to date, but saw the plot twist coming when an older man (equally buff, though. Bridget doesn't date ugly men!) from her son's school became her friend.

In short I love Helen Fielding's writing style, and this story, and while there are a lot of things happening to the English language in England that don't really click with Americans like me (who don't spend time overseas), you catch on eventually, even to unusual terms like Spag Bog (Spaghetti Bolognese).  Yes, it's apparently one of England's most popular meals, and Bridget's kids love to eat it.  those touches give the book its unique flair, and while I missed Darcy, I was rooting for Bridget to succeed at putting her life back together, and she has.  By the end, she's got a better relationship with her Mom, her Neighbors, even the most put-together mom at school as she finds out everyone is just bumbling along, despite appearances to the contrary.

I'm told they are working on the movie version of this book, but Hugh Grant refused to be in it, which is a sham.  If the movie is even half as fun as reading the booi, consider my ticket already bought.

 Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope

Review by Gerti

Let me start by saying that it takes enormous cheek for a writer of any reputation and ability to name her book after one which is already considered a classic. I think Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” qualifies as such, and Austen is a popular enough author that many people know of the novel, even if they haven’t read it. So for Joanna Trollope (who?) to name her novel the same thing, and to use many of the same characters, is an outrage to me.

I’m sure Trollope, a popular author of many other books and an Austen fan, would say that she has just modernized Austen’s story, and therefore has the right to use the characters and just loosen things up a bit, morally speaking, and throw in some modern tech, like computers and Facebook. Since I’ve read many other Austen-homage books, I should be comfortable with that sort of thing, done successfully in “The Jane Austen Book Club” and “Austenland”, among other texts. But none of those authors were bold enough to just call their books “Pride and Prejudice” or any of Austen’s other well-known titles, and I don’t think Trollope should have taken that liberty, either. Her work pales by comparison.

As for the story Trollope writes, it follows the direction of Austen’s work, even if Trollope has added embellishments, like giving first names to characters like Mrs. Dashwood, the mother of Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, and to Colonel Brandon. While Brandon retains most of his dignified character from the original, “Belle” Dashwood comes off as an unlikeable, selfish hippy. Her imprudence (at not marrying Mr. Dashwood in the first place) sets up the fall from grace for the family of four women, as they are sent from their house at Norland when Henry Dashwood’s son (by his real wife) inherits the estate. Elinor is still the sensible daughter, and she recognizes the need to get work when they are sent packing, but neither Belle nor Marianne, the younger daughter, are grounded enough in reality to feel the need to contribute financially to the family’s survival. Marianne is young, which makes her sin of selfishness more forgivable, but it is intolerable to have middle-aged Belle simply live off the charity of a relative (Sir John Middleton) or her daughter’s paycheck. Belle also tries to mooch off of Mrs. Jennings when country living gets too boring for her, but fortunately the old lady is wise to her manipulative ways and does not ask her to join her in London.

But is the story worth reading? Yes, I suppose it is, for desperate Austen fans, but mainly for the ending, where Trollope goes beyond Austen’s story and has Edward’s mother forgive him for his youthful indiscretion with Lucy Steele, and give him a little money. The end also finds Fanny Dashwood getting a comeuppance by her mother, whom she is trying to manipulate so she’ll cut her brother Robert out of her will, as she did with her brother Edward. The mother doesn’t fall for it, which makes this reader for one cheer to see Fanny thwarted in at least one of her greedy escapades. As for “Trollope’s voice” which is vaunted by a cover blurb praising the author, I find it sadly unequal to Austen’s original.