Bridget Jones is the voice of my generation and I'm damn proud to be represented by her. Reading Bridget Jones's Diary for the first time was finding out all those little secrets and idiosyncrasies that you and only you had; everyone had.All the bad choices we make, all the crazy thoughts and feelings and never really growing up, Bridget does it too. She made it fun to be crazy, and as I said before, you can make crazy look good.
I was looking at my book shelf trying to figure out which book to write about next and saw Bridget Jones. I was just going to read the first few pages and then I couldn't stop. I read the entire thing in two bath tub soakings and a sleepless night. And I have read it over and over again. I know what's going to happen, I know when it's going to happen but I still love it. It's a great story that really connects people.
Bridget paved the way for all the new women are powerful ideal, like Sex and the City. Bridget showed that you can be necrotic and brave, holding it together and falling apart and not perfect. I love that these women came along when I was in my teens and twenties and I didn't have to think I was alone and strange for thinking and overthinking. That all I was doing was normal and okay.
Having so much respect for this book,it kills me that people put it down. Why is this chick lit? Why is this not accepted like it should be? Because it has a relationship in the center of the story? Because there is talk of shopping and girl issues? This is a great story and maybe I do connect it because I'm a girl but I think the label chick lit is sometimes viewed as a bad thing. Now I love that most women have taken it up as a badge of honor (especially my girls at Chick Lit Central) but I'm tired of hearing it. I have a minor in English Lit and loved my women lit classes with the serious literature that came along with that. I just feel that stories like Bridget Jones should be taken seriously as well. There is so much good writing out there and just because it's about a girl and a guy doesn't mean it's bad.
So thank you Helen Fielding. I believe your story has changed so many women's lives and it will continue to live on with the quirky, messy fabulous Bridget.
Sincerely,
KT
Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary
Thanks for the shout out. However, we see chick lit as contemporary women's literature. The novels range from light and carefree like the Shopaholic series to something in a more serious scope, such as "Life After Yes" or the myriads of books about affairs, spousal death, infertility, etc. Bridget Jones's Diary certainly paved the way for contempary women's literature and it still stands out as memorable and unique.
ReplyDeleteKT, I agree 100%! Bridget Jones's Diary was ground breaking, not just in Bridget's endearing, humanly-flawed character--I defy any woman with a pulse and a Celine Dion CD not to relate to--but also in its diary format. The honest confessional might be not all that glam at times, but isn't that no-bullshit, stomach-churning hope and heart-bursting disappointment what we all read on for? Purists can get all twisty-knickered about it and poo poo chick lit, but if the writer fleshes out characters that make us 'feel,' who is to say that is not good writing? If the plot absorbs you, infecting your thoughts and sparking your imagination, how can that be maligned? Bridget Jones's Diary does deserve plaudits because it makes you think and it makes you feel.
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