Latest Bridget
Jones novel is the
one we’ve been waiting for
Joanna
Davis | Bridport
& Lyme Regis News – October 15, 2016
BOOK
OF THE WEEK
Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries
Helen Fielding
Pages devoured: 216. Embarrassing laugh-out-loud moments on public
transport: numerous. Overall thoughts on latest Bridget Jones book: V.v.v.
gd.
Helen Fielding reminds us once again that she’s the Queen of
encapsulating the female experience in all its messy, funny and emotional
glory with her fourth Bridget Jones book. Now, forget for a second that
Hugh Grant didn’t want to join in the fun in the film of the same name,
which was released in September, and that Colin Firth’s character Mark
Darcy was killed off in Fielding’s previous Bridget book, 2014’s Mad About The Boy. This is the Bridget we were all clamouring to
see: in a chaotic conundrum over who the father of her baby is – Mark or
Daniel. There’s a flashback five years to her engagement party to Mark,
when we find out exactly why he left her, and then we’re at the
christening of the film where she sleeps with Mark. After sexist lothario
Daniel wins over the feminists when he hands out the Archer-Biro Prize For
Women’s Fiction (in a brilliant scene that allows Fielding to have a pop
at critics of ‘chick-lit’), a drunken Bridget falls into bed with him
too, thus teeing up the ‘Who’s the daddy?’ plot. Cue a return to
much-loved Fielding ground, with more squabbling between the old enemies
(remember Mark walked in on Daniel sleeping with his first wife), Bridget
almost killing both suitors with some lethal muffins and having some
powerful revelations about the difference between Singletons and Smug
Marrieds and the power of saying ‘No’. All the while, her career at Sit
Up Britain! is teetering on the edge as journalism increasingly dumbs
down, and her mum’s fussing about the Queen’s visit to their village.
Daniel gets some of the funniest lines, and there’s a couple of poignant
reprises of Bridget and Mark’s most memorable lines. It’s
short, pacy and perfect.
9/10
|