Can you believe it took me this long to read Bridget Jones's Diary? I did just barely buy it from the thrift store on Wednesday of last week, and read it yesterday! Aren't you proud of me? I think this is the OG modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice. Amazon summary:
Bridget Jones's Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, "How's your love life?" with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, Bridget Jones's Diary has touched a raw nerve with millions of readers the world round.
This book felt like a grown-up version of the Georgia Nicholson books (Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, etc.), another series of English girl dating diary-style books. Bridget has the same desperation, the same despondent belief that she is fat and ugly, the same tight group of friends with their own relationship problems, and nearly the same naivety towards men as Georgia, and the latter is fourteen. What's different is that Bridget's anxieties are of the 30-something "I'm going to die alone/men are trash" variety, her friend group includes a Gay Best Friend, and her negative body image veers towards an eating disorder. Adult women are supposed to eat between 1600 and 2400 calories a day, yet Bridget aims for 700 daily calories, and beats herself up if she eats 1200. She frequently calls herself fatphobic names, has a photographic memory of how many calories every kind of food has (this is remarkable because she can't remember her times table or anything else having to do with numbers), and once flees an attempted tryst with a younger man because he presses down on her stomach and says "squashy" in a non-negative way (weird, but not mean). Bridget also strongly reminds me of the Shopaholic series' main character, due to how much I wanted to shake her (they're so annoying and need to grow up!!).
I also would not say Bridget is self aware, as the book summary does. She's way too hard on herself in the looks department and thinks she's fat even though she's not, while she doesn't realize how hard she's making her own life. She also deflates whenever anyone is mean or overbearing, and doesn't know how to set boundaries with people. I was similarly boy-obsessed, despairing when they ignored me, and certain I was fat and always trying to diet in my twenties, but Bridget's in her thirties and is acting like a 19 year old.
In short, Bridget bears no resemblance to Lizzy Bennet. Lizzy would have stood up to the fatphobic catty model-types and said something witty and biting to them. Lizzy wouldn't have slept with her boss even though she knew he didn't want to be in a relationship (Bridget did call him out a few times, but was still really gullible). Lizzy wouldn't have cared what weight or size she was. Lizzy wouldn't have fretted over men or dying alone. Lizzy wouldn't have put up with many of Bridget's so-called "friends"' behavior, and she would have handled the Smug Marrieds' nosy questions better, possibly even making them feel they had behaved badly. She also doesn't have any banter with Darcy. Bridget is a disappointment in that sense. You have to see this book as a completely different work than Pride & Prejudice.
Mark Darcy was handled pretty well, I thought. I was surprised to see that his and Bridget's relationship wasn't the typical "hate to love"/wits clashing kind of dynamic that you often see. Bridget's and Mark's family friends keep trying to push them together, but Bridget thinks Mark is a dork, and Mark thinks she's attractive but that she's not into him. They obviously get together in the end, although you don't really know why. Bridget is so immature and has so many neuroses and low self esteem that you're not sure what Mark sees in her, apart from his comment that he was tired of dating airbrushed, plastic women and wanted someone real. You also get the feeling Bridget gets with Mark mainly because she likes the attention and doesn't want to be single anymore. Her finally having a boyfriend is the triumph, not their being in love. To be honest, this book dwelt way too much on the Wickham character, Bridget's boss, than on Mark Darcy.
I thought it was a stroke of genius that the Mrs. Bennet and Lydia characters were compounded into one, Bridget's mum. She gets a midlife crisis and a Portuguese lover, to Bridget's horror, and the scandal Darcy has to help with is a timeshare scam. I thought she was pretty well-written: self-involved, self-absorbed, selfish, obsessed with fixing Bridget up with somebody, totally embarrassing. I also thought Bridget was way too much of a doormat with her, always doing what she wanted.
The other characters are nearly unrecognizable to their P&P counterparts, or nonexistent. Bridget's dad is a racist cuckhold who weeps and mopes about when his wife leaves him (he always calls the Portuguese lover a w*p when railing against him). Mr. Bennet would have been like, good riddance if his wife left him. Mary Bennet's part may have been played by Bridget's man-hating (but not a lesbian) friend? I already mentioned that Bridget's hot but flaky boss was the Wickham character, but he also had a dash of Mr. Collins, in the sense that he married someone else and it blindsided Bridget.
I know I've been ragging on this book a lot, and deservedly so, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. I read this at the end of a very long day, and it was the perfect read for that. I'd recommend this book if you want to read all of the Jane Austen retellings or if you like chick lit, especially British chick lit, and have a high tolerance for romcom Single Girl shenanigans.
I want to read the other books, but will get them from the library rather than buying them. I'd also like to see the movies.
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: May 12
From: thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: idk, probably giving away
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