Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Sunday 17^th November 2013

Number of times almost gave up reading the book 3, number of times questioned why Helen Fielding thought it was necessary to write this book 50, déjà vus’ from Bridget Jones Diary 3680, time lost reading this book 600 minutes, chances of Bridget Jones surviving another sequel 0. 

 

The best thing about this book is that poor Mark Darcy is dead. 

He would have been horrified to see that Bridget had morphed into a cross between Edina Monsoon (Absolutely Fabulous) and Katie Price (after Peter Andre). 

He probably would have divorced her within 5 years and ran off to parts unknown with the kids; while Bridget spends her time gaining and losing weight, drinking and smoking too much and too little, dating and being dumped by toy boys. Not to mention, she would be constantly stalking Mark and the kids through twitter and other forms of social media.

 

Who knows, perhaps that plot would have made ‘Mad about the Boy’ an enjoyable and worthwhile reading experience.  

Bridget Jones Diary was a fun book; many of us identified with poor Bridget as she yo-yo dieted, smoked and drank her way through the weekends and (most week nights), devoured self-help books,  relied (very heavily) on her eclectic group of friends, and was hopeless at finding love. The diary layout was perfect for those of us who did not want to read too many words and it was kind of cute the way she rated her intake of cigarettes, food and alcohol with v.good, v. bad, etc. 

Despite using the successful formula that made Bridget Jones Diary so popular, ‘Mad About the Boy’ is a sad regurgitation of that previous success. 

Daniel Cleaver, the very likable, clever, shallow, attractive ‘player’ boss in Bridget Jones Diary is a creepy shadow of his former self in this book. He lurks around in the background popping up only when Bridget cannot find anyone else to babysit her kids. Conveniently, he is always available. Towards the end, he accidentally (really?) swallows fairy liquid, thinking it was crème de menthe and ends up in hospital and is neatly disposed of.  Seriously?   

Roxster seemed to be the only character that had the remote possibility of making this book enjoyable. Yet he is simply a caricature of Daniel Cleaver (that is Daniel in his glory days and without the executive role and great suits).  I don't get why he calls Bridget ‘Jonesey’ since she met him when she was Bridget Darcy not Bridget Jones. Also,wasn’t that how Daniel Cleaver referred to Bridget in the previous books?

     

As for the rest of the characters, I don’t quite understand what their purpose in the book was except perhaps as fillers; and lets not get started on Mr. Wallaker... 

My rating for Mad About The Boy -  2 Champagne Flutes