Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
book, review
4/5 stars
I’ve seen the movie as a teenager. Liked it, but had no intention of actually picking the book up once I’ve learned of its existence.
Two things changed: first, I’d read and loved Pride and Prejudice (another book I never expected to pick up). And second, when Miles’s fantastic review of Emma (spoilers!) implied that the Bridget Jones’s diary is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, I’ve checked the first few paragraphs and was hooked.
What should have been obvious, but still surprised me was that this book, called The Bridget Jones’s Diary is in fact… told in a series of diary entries. This resonated with me: I went through fits and starts keeping a diary (or "journal" when I’m feeling fancy) throughout my life, but I’ve finally managed to make it stick starting January 2020.
While our life circumstances, personalities and behaviours are completely different, I felt kinship to Bridget. Felt really lonely for about six years (doing better now!), felt not having had life figured out (I secretly suspect a lot of / most adults feel this?), struggled with relationships and vices and walked around with a really high baseline level of anxiety.
The eponymous Bridget is in her early thirties, single, lives in London, has great friends and projects happiness and independence to the incessant questions about marriage and kids from her parents and all of their friends. Inside, she’s terrified of dying alone, her body being eaten by pets because no one will have noticed her being gone.
In a nod to the classic, she meets Mark Darcy at an annual party her family is invited to and takes an instant dislike to him (that the surname is noticed and commented on is a relief — I worried the book would feign ignorance which would be extremely grating). In the meantime she starts flirting with her boss (great idea!).
Throughout the eventful year (new job! mum going insane — even more insane than usual, that is; betrayal, a disappeared friend) Bridget diligently records her weight, calories, alcohol and smoking habits. You cheer her on during her love-induced 0 alcohol units and 0 cigarettes streak, dreading inevitable backslide. You get exasperated as she discusses another diet to try and delight when she realises all this fussing about diets being a concern manufactured by a patriarchal society and egged on by the media to siphon money from vulnerable women. Before the next backslide hits.
Bridget Jones feels absolutely human in every aspect. Alive as much as a character from a story could possibly be. I am not her, but in so many ways I felt the same — and even where I did not, I sympathise.
The Pride and Prejudice connection is very much not on the nose (Mr. Darcy notwithstanding) and it’s more of a bit of a scaffolding to tell a story of a wonderful messed up person. Though when the final crisis hits, the parallels become clearer and you can’t help yourself grinning.
v.g.
This review was originally posted to Goodreads.
