Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason by Helen Fielding
Published February 2000 by Viking Adult
Source: my local Goodwill

Publisher's Summary:
The Edge of Reason finds Bridget ensconced in an up and down relationship with Mark Darcy, whom she finally decided to give a chance at the end of the first book. Bridget's best Singleton pals Jude and Shaz are on hand to dispense advise about men and relationships culled from the pages of GETTING THE LOVE YOU WANT and KEEPING THE LOVE YOU FIND, with unfortunate results. And Bridget's Smug Married friend Magda still mixes phone calls with friends with instructions shouted at her kids: "Bridget, hi! I was just ringing to say in the potty! Do it in the potty!"


My Thoughts:
Sometimes you just need something mindless, something that doesn't make you work to read it, something that makes you chuckle. Bridget Jones is just the girl to turn to when you need that book.

The Edge of Reason gave me exactly what I was expecting at exactly the right time.

Bridget is still a lovable ditz who is constantly finding herself in awkward situations. She drinks too much, she smokes too much, she obsesses about her weight which is never what she hopes it to be. Her parents, particularly her mother, are still a trial and she has job troubles, relationship troubles, and friendship troubles. This time around she also has home improvement problems and her lack of good judgment takes her to an all-time low which will eventually land her in prison. This being Bridget, you know things won't get too dark.

I know it's to be expected for me to say that I liked the book better than the movie. This time it has to do as much with what the movie added as with what it left out. One of the funniest things in the book was an interview that Bridget does with Colin Firth. As Firth is playing Mark Darcy in the movies, they couldn't very well leave that in which was a shame. A highlight of the first movie was the fight between Firth and Hugh Grant. Apparently the writers of the second movie thought that needed to be repeated. In fact, Bridget's ex-boss and ex-beau Daniel spends a lot more time in the movie than he does in the book. Because Hugh Grant. But it all just felt like a rehash of the first movie. Whereas, the second book offers readers something more and something different all while still being 100% authentically Bridget.