Bridget Jones: the edge of reason door Helen Fielding

1. The story

Title: Bridget Jones; the edge of reason
Writer: Helen Fielding

2. The background to the story

Place: The story takes place in London, England.
Time: The events described in the book took place after 1995, so it takes place in our time.
Main character's background: Bridget is a single woman of 30 years old. She has no children or husband.

3. The genre of the story

Genre: Drama
Realistic: Yes, the story was very realistic. The way Bridget struggles with her weight, her addiction to self-help books, cigarettes, and liquor is very realistic. She feels lonely without a boyfriend, and doesn't understand men.

4. The characters
Description of the main characters:

Bridget Jones: Bridget is a 30 year old woman, who is desperately looking for the man of her life. She is very neurotic and doesn't really think well of herself. When Mark leaves her for Rebecca, she's very hurt.

Sharon: (also known as Shazzer) A single woman of the same age as Bridget. She is one of Bridget's best friends.

Jude: A good friend of Bridget's. She married Richard, a thing that Bridget and Sharon got very mad about, but eventually they were happy for her.

Mark Darcy: Mark is the son Bridget's mother's friends. In the beginning of the book Bridget has a relationship with him, but it doesn't work out. Later on in the book they find each other again.

Rebecca: A woman which Bridget, Shazzer and Jude have a hate-love relationship with. Only later on in the book this hate-love relationship turns into a hate-relationship because Rebecca starts dating Mark Darcy.

Name a character you would like to meet:
I'd like to meet Bridget. She's a very funny woman, with refreshing new thoughts.

Name a character you would not like to meet:
I wouldn't like to meet Rebecca because she's very arrogant and mean.

5. Summary of the story's events

Bridget Jones is a woman of 30 years old and lives in an apartment in London. She (finally) has a boyfriend named Mark. She works at a television station but she's not really appreciated there. She's very nervous to do anything wrong what would make her lose her boyfriend, and tries to find the right way by reading many self-help-books. At a party she meets her rival Rebecca who's constantly flirting with Mark. When Bridget goes to Mark's apartment, she finds a naked Asian boy in his bedroom and thinks that Mark is a paedophile. They brake up. When Bridget keeps bumping in to Mark she starts to realise that she still loves him, and this leads to a variation of hilarious situations. Especially when he is dating Rebecca. She's very jealous. She tries to get over him by drinking, smoking and shopping a lot. She convinces herself that she needs a change and decides to let an extra room built to her apartment. The handyman comes over once to make a hole in her outside wall, but never comes back. So she has an enormous hole in her wall which will stay there for the coming months. When the holidays arrive, Shazzer and Bridget decide to go on a holiday to Thailand. When they want to return, Bridget is arrested because a man hid coke in her bag. She goes to prison and has to stay there for 11 days. Not any longer, because Mark Darcy is a lawyer, and proves that Bridget was not guilty. Bridget is very happy with her weightloss in the prison, but that's the only positive thing about the whole experience of course. She quits her job because her boss is always on heroine and shouting at her. When she's at home a few weeks, she receives a bullet-letter. She cannot stay in her apartment anymore, so she moves in with Mark. When on top of it all Diana dies, Bridget is totally exhausted and disorientated. Mark comforts her and they have sex again. She receives a letter that they fired her boss, and that they would love her to come back to work, because she did very well. The police found the man who send her the bullet-letter, it was her handyman, who made the hole in her wall. At the wedding of Jude and Richard, Bridget overhears Rebecca begging Mark to come back to her, but Mark says that he loves Bridget and that she's the one. Of course Bridget is overwhelmingly happy. When they are at home, Mark asks Bridget whether she wants to come with him to America, because he has to work there, and of course, Bridget says yes.

6. The title

Do you think the title is well chosen?
Yes, I do. After all, the book IS about Bridget Jones, and sometimes she's so neurotic that she's literally 'on the edge of reason'.

Think of another suitable title.
???

7. My personal opinion.

Did you enjoy reading this story?
Yes I did. I never read the first Diary, but I found this one VERY funny.

What didn't you like?
I liked the whole story. I couldn't stop reading and laughing.

Does this story remind you of any other story?
Well, if I had read Bridget Jones Diary then I would certainly named that one.

Would you recommend this story to others? Why (not) ?
I would recommend this book to any woman. Not to men, because it can be quite insulting to men sometimes. I would recommend it to any woman, because it's very recognisable.

Did you learn something from the story? If so, what did you learn?
I don't think I learned something from the book, but I don't think that was the intention of the writer, to learn something from it. I think it's just an entertainment book.