When I was in my 20s I adored Bridget Jones’s Diary and the sequel. I haven’t read either of them in a long time, but I picked up the first to fill my “The Book was Better?” square.
Bridget Jones’s Diary hasn’t aged well, in many respects. Bridget monitors her weight obsessively and freaks out any time it goes above 128 pounds, which is laughable. She smokes like a chimney. There’s the line about the Japanese being “a very cruel race.” But in other ways I was surprised to see some progressive elements here. Bridget longs to find a partner, it’s true, but at the same time she and her friends embrace their “alternative lifestyles” as single people in their 30s, and fight back against the “Smug Marrieds” who try to make them feel bad about being single and the way they live. As silly of a character as she is, Bridget is still relatable. Her motives and actions make sense, and you really feel for her when bad things happen to her. She really is the sort of protagonist that you root for.
It’s also a funny book, particularly when Mark Darcy comes around. He’s rather endearingly socially awkward, and their interactions are very entertaining. On the other hand, I think I’ve aged past the point where I would find anything about Daniel Cleaver even remotely attractive. He’s slimy, he negs Bridget, and he has an incredibly inflated opinion of himself. I couldn’t find a single reason why Bridget might like him, outside of his appearance and her own low self-esteem. Still, I enjoyed rereading this book, and was glad to find it could still make me laugh.
As for the bingo square, I’m not sure which was better, the book or the movie. I typically prefer books over their movie adaptations, but of course the movie has Colin Firth which is a pretty big point in its favor.
CBR10 Bingo: The Book was Better?
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