Customer Reviews

Adrian Mole from Minor to Major

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a Chinese girl growing up in the capital city Beijing, I felt a lot of the things Adrian feels -- but I would never have said or written them! When I was a kid, you just didn't talk to grownups like that. This is a funny book, but the humor is a bit black at times, and very moving. No doubt about it: Sue Townsend hasn't forgotten one iota what it means to be a teenager. P.S. I love Adrian's dog too!

I was 13 when my mom first handed me this book, and as there was virtually no new reading material on the base I was living on in Japan, and I being the book-o-holic I am, I read it in one day. I love Adrian and and his diary entries! It's four years later, and I still read my battered copy whenever I need to be cheered up--like before the SATs or when I just need to laugh--everyone should own this book. :)

This book is not only humourous but moving. It is a geniune comment on the society of the time in my opinion. It covers practically anything you're going to come across in life. Just brilliant!

Sue townsend is a great writer, Adrian Mole From minor to Major proves it. Adrian Mole is a teenager, hit by almost every social problem raking the the latter half of the 20th century. His views on everyday life are hilarious. The book is really funny. However, if you read between the lines, you'll be touched by the underlying sensitivity. Its a simple book, easy to read. Adrian Mole is confused about life, he's a teenager discovering the ways of the world. He believes in the irony of life. His poems, though few will have you in splits. There is an Adrian Mole present in all of us. Read this book, you'll know for yourself

Funny, funny, funny. I would encourage everybody I know (who hasn't already borrowed by copy and reacted in the same way) to BUY THIS BOOK. Sue Townsend has created a wonderful character. The Adrian Mole series were the first Sue Townsend books I bought - she is GREAT and I will continue to read more Sue Townsend. I bought and read this book on the night after my divorce went to court - AND IT CHEERED ME UP enough to laugh again.

This is actually the diary of Adrian Mole, an awkward teenager, who lived the life of a normal teenager. He had a crush on a pretty girl, hated his dog sometimes, had parents who squabble now and then... The diary was written from the view of Adrian Mole. You could see that the writing style change as he grew and matured. I really admired how Sue Townsend can see things from the view of a young boy and a young man. Nice work! Pretty funny too!

A family friend gave this book to me a few years back, and I finally got around to reading it. The first two books, "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4" and "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole", were funny and enjoyable. Adrian and his relations were well-defined and began to feel like old friends as I read through these sections. And then I got to around page 400 of this book, where the third volume, "The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole", began.

What on earth happened?

I was surprised by Adrian's transformation from an empathetic, if pompous, wannabe intellectual to a pretentious and incredibly irritating adult. Are we really supposed to believe that, in the space of four or five years, Adrian's writing doesn't improve at all, when we watched it grow for the two years documented by the first two books? Are we supposed to believe that Adrian, who previously showed some sympathy to the lower classes of British society, suddenly comes to resent them? And what in the world is up with the one chapter where he suddenly develops an obsession with Sarah Ferguson? Even the structure was jarring; the shift from daily diary entries to occasional check-ins across a five-year period meant that the reader had to make a lot of assumptions as to what the characters had been up to in the intervening time. All this, combined with multiple errors in continuity and typography, left an extremely bad taste in my mouth. If you do purchase this book, do not read past the second volume or risk severe disappointment.

This is the first book I read from cover to cver without being forced to by some teacher or other adult... interestingly enough I got it a week ago at Indigo (this may be a canadian chain... but I pretty sure they own Chapters so I'd assume they'd have it as well)anyway... this intrigues me that no one has been able to find it...

Of "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4" I wrote: Adrian Mole, precocious British teenager, self-professed intellectual, and diarist tells us of his trials and tribulations during the last part of his 13th and all of his 14th year. His musings are funny, sweet, and ultimately poignant. In this first edition of the series, we follow him through his decision to become an intellectual, his parents separation and reunification, and his tumultuous first love affair with one Pandora Braithwaite (herself precocious, radical and somewhat fickle.)

Upon my second reading of this book, I was pleased that I was not any less enchanted by Adrian as when I first became acquainted with him during my freshman year of college. Adrian is such a real and believable character that it's hard to believe he sprung from the mind of a middle-aged woman, who herself has never, presumably, been a 13 and 3/4 year old boy. Of course, neither have I. I am also not British, and not well-acquainted with early 1980's Britain and know nothing of British politics. I often find it difficult to read literature from countries I have not visited or studied extensively, but the colloquialisms herein are not as mystifying or unable to be understood from context in this work as others I have read.

I would recommend this book to any American Anglophile or any young adult who would in any way identify with the engaging character of Adrian Mole.

On "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole:" The only thing I have to add about this edition of the series is that I find it a little hard to believe that a 15-year-old as well-read and 'intellectual' as Adrian is completely oblivious to certain things. It's rather annoying and makes him a bit less believable of a character. However, this book is still literally laugh out loud funny.

Upon reading "The True Confessions of Adrian Mole" I must say that I find it rather unnerving after two books covering daily entries from Adrian's life over a period of 1 1/2 years each, having the third volume of the series (no lengthier than the first two) feature essays, radio broadcasts, selected letters and covering a period of 5+ years. It's jolting. Also, upon growing older, Adrian does not seem to *grow up!* He's still writing bloody awful poetry which, at 13 3/4 was amusing, it's rather less so at age 20 (and 8 months, which he still finds it necessary to add.) He's still naive and not clever at all, which is hard to fathom from such a promising youth. I find it hard to believe that the BBC allowed him a broadcast slot! I still intend to read the following volumes of the series, but my main purpose will be to find out whether Adrian ever removes his head from his *cough* ahem.

I love adrien mole and all of sue townsends books. The worst thing happened to me last year. My little sis kept going on at me about how she needed a complete verson of the adrien mole booksand after a long hard time of thinking I made the biggest mistake of my life . I had every book of adrien mole. (except the wilderness years) My sis came back to me 2 days later and said she had lost it . I have really wanted to get my book back but it doesn't seemed to have been returned to me. I can't seem to get Adrien mole minor to major any where. I am askin my mum to buy me the other books off the web. If any 1 knows where to get Adrien mole minor to major please e-mail me. Thanx!!!!!!!