Meet Bridget Jones’s Friends Rosie and Olivia
I often like movie versions of novels just because I loved the book. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work the other way, as with the Bridget Jones series of books and films.
Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996, 2001 film) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1999, 2004 film) by Helen Fielding remain two of my favorite chick flicks, but were painful to read. The diary format used created a disjointed novel that changed story from page to page. It was hard to learn much of anything about the on screen-lovable mess of a cute woman.
If you too grabbed up the Bridget Jones duo of hit British novels only to be disappointed: don’t give up on Helen Fielding as an author!
Although Bridget was seemingly more suitable for film than paper, when Fielding pulls a story together, and removes the constraints of a daily diary, she creates fun characters in funny situations.
Cause Celeb (1994) was her first published novel. It follows a slightly more put together version of Bridget - Rosie - as she joins a humanitary relief effort in Africa after a bad, public breakup. It’s amazing how one book can inspire you to be a better person, while winding you in to a chick lit story.
After she thoroughy exhausted Ms. Jones (there were two other stories after the two popular ones), she headed in the direction of crazy, storyteller Oliva Joules. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination (2004) tells the classic journalist turn spy when freelance writer Olivia spins a wild tale - in her head - about Pierre, the man she is assigned to do an article about but whom she secretly believes to be a terrorist.
So, love the Bridget Jones enhanced to adorable perfection by Renee Zellweger? Skip over the written versions and head straight to an introsuction with Rosie and Olivia.
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