I clearly remember reading the first two Bridget Jones books. Devouring thema nd laughing my way (usually aloud) to every page in my little apartments way back when. Her neurosis made for a great read and there is always something about feeling like you are intimately involved in a characters life when it is written as a diary.It's been a long time since Bridget was a singleton. Now, she's a 51 year old widow with two small children to think of and a four year dry spell her friends think it is high time she ended.
Oh - you caught that widow bit. Yeah - I can't avoid that part of the book. Spoiler alert - Mark Darcy passed away in a tragic accident (of course it was tragic) and now Bridget, while well taken care of by his estate, has the task of being a mom and a woman and trying to finally get her life back together again.
I do not want to share any other spoilers so I am just going to write about my feelings as I read this book.
1) While it is laugh out loud funny - it is also heart breakingly sad. Both in how lonely and heartbroken she is, but also in how the old Bridget is still inside there and she is trying the old tricks in a much older body. Some of it works. Some of it doesn't.
2) Helen Fielding MUST be a mother. The way the passages around Bridget and Mark's children were written and the thoughts about parenthood - oh my gawd, I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face.
So for both of these - this is NOT the chick lit that used to be Bridget Jones. Jonesy is older, if not exactly wiser, and she is operating in a much different world than she used to - one with social media and toy boys and, more importantly, impressionable young children with commitments of their own.
I really enjoyed the book, but I am quick to say it wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
