Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination: Helen Fielding

By: Helen Fielding
List: $14.00

My Review:

In 1999, Helen Fielding debuted the bestselling Bridget Jones. (And defined chick-lit.) Since then we have been given a sequel, two movie adaptations, and one thousand weak rip-offs (See: Nanny Diaries; the wretched Shopoholic series).

The marketing for the book and even some reviewers describe this book as a new genre for Fielding: a thriller or a post 9-11 political satire.

This is not a shift for Fielding: the spy element is just a new context for what Fielding does best: exposing the inner neuroses of so many women who despite their external success are internally filled with anxiety and self-consciousness.

What I particularly enjoy about all of Fielding's novels is that her characters generally have a list of rules that they follow. (We all have these rules, although we may not be so neurotic as to sit down and number them.)

Okay, actually I AM THAT NEUROTIC, so here you go...

My Rules Regarding Books:

1. If you are not engaged after 50 pages, toss it. I know it is painful. You spent good money on the book. But now you are just wasting your time too.

2. When in doubt, choose the Trade paperback over a mass market paperback.

3. Never watch a movie adaptation of a book you loved.

4. Never buy a book with the movie poster on the cover.

5. Never re-read a book you loved.

I am sure I have more, but do you? Let me know!

Other Media Reviews:

Publishers Weekly:

"Considering the number of writers who've tried, and generally failed, to do plummy Bridget Jones one better, it only makes sense that Fielding should take a vacation from the genre she spawned and seek (sort of) greener pastures. Her new inspiration? Think Ian Fleming... What's wrong with the book: two-dimensional characters, dangling plot threads, the questionable taste of al-Qaeda bombings in an escapist, comic spy novel. What's right: girl-power punch, page-turning brio and a new heroine to root for.


The Telegraph (London):
"Fielding is an extremely skillful and engaging writer. The book works as a fast-paced thriller — I gulped it down in one reading. But it also has great charm and, in its shy fashion, a moral theme."