Customer Reviews

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(32)

 

 

I adored the Bridget Jones diaries, which I think are among the cleverest of the genre, so it was with great anticipation that I picked up Helen Fielding's latest effort. I was disappointed.

Sure the book delivers all that it promises - fast paced action in the beautiful parts of the world, potentially evil terrorists (or playboys?), big terrorist attacks, sub plots and red herrings. But somewhere along the way, I really began to find the book was quite hard going. I think I just stopped being interested in, or caring about our hero Olivia.

It is certainly mildly entertaining, and as a smallish book it is a quick read, great for lying on a beach somewhere. But I think it is also a great opportunity missed. Perhaps it will translate better into a movie - this is a screenplay waiting in the wings.

I had heard bad things about this book but I loved it - let's add Olivia Joules to the list of great iconic female leads. Up there with Bridget Jones (obviously), Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw (Wuthering Heights), Isadora Peabody (The Charm School) and my other new star Elsie Roundbottom (You Are Here)

But I am not here to add to it. This book is fluff, but it is my kind of fluff. I was not all that fond of Bridget Jones, I found her whiny. Perhaps this is why I like Olivia, she is a Bridget who actually has managed to keep her resolutions and transform her outer self. Her inner self might still be a bit of a mess, but her confidence makes up for it.

This spy story does involve actual threats, but that is true to the tradition of spy stories, when Ian Fleming was writing Russians was just as scary as middle-eastern terrorists are now. A good spy story should create a hero(ine) that can make you feel safer in the face of a real threat. Olivia is not quite as reassuring as the ultra-competent James Bond, but her ability to not panic and remain curious even in difficult situations is a saving grace.

On another level this novel is a Jack tale, and Olivia's bumbling success follows that pattern. She charges in and get over her head and somehow comes out the better for it.

Fielding was way off base this time. I managed to get through 220 pages before I put it down in disgust. (I skimmed the end, just to make sure it was as bad as I suspected.) It was tasteless, to say the very least, of her to exploit 9/11 for the purposes of selling a rather badly written comedy. Other authors have managed to include 9/11 in their works (Pattern Recognition comes immediately to mind) with sensitivity and tact. Nobody could ever accuse Fielding of sensitivity or tact in this novel. It is relentlessly racist, in a casual British-colonialist kind of way. All the bad guys are Arabs, of course, unless they are selling "carrrpeeets." Our sole black man has bulging shorts (not a speaking part). The romance aspect is a cross between a bodice-ripper and Masters and Johnson with shades of rubber. And Joules, our dim-witted, politically challenged, and oh-so-coy heroine, utterly fails as a Jane Bond. Overall, I'd say if you picked this book up for beach reading, let the tide take it back to England.

I've read all of Helen Fielding's books (though I really must admit--I couldn't make it through Cause Celeb, *yawn*). After reading the first chapter of Olivia, I was worried it would be another failed attempt from Fielding. But then things started looking up.

Olivia won me over. I like to think of her as a Bridget Jones meets Sydney Bristow. I'm a big fan of the tv series Alias, and it was sort of like having Bridget thrown into a spy role, which led to many funny moments.

I ended up thoroughly enjoying the book, and didn't put it down all day! Very pleased with the ending as well. Three cheers, Fielding has done it again!

The only reason I finished this book is because I paid full price for it. I've enjoyed Helen Fielding in the past, but this book made me want to gnaw off my limbs. The characters are thin and insipid. The plot ridiculous in the extreme. I read the positive reviews posted here and wondered if they read a different book. Perhaps someone changed the cover on me? If you go in for the clumsy, ridiculous and poorly written, this book is for you.

OK, this is not Bridget Jones (which was 5+ star). Lower your expectations. But it is a light summer read, perfect for the beach, about a reporter with an overactive imagination that is really cleverly done in the first half of the book- she imagines espionage everywhere! and sees hidden motives in all she meets- this could have been a wonderful comic novel ala Basil Fawlty, but alas some true espionage does come Olivia's way and the book changes tone dramatically 2/3's of the way through and becomes quite serious. Or rather, tries to take itself too seriously, ala Ian Fleming, which I think was a big mistake. The latter half of the book seems at odds with the first half- were these written by 2 different authors? Did Ms Fielding take an extended holiday between parts 1 and 2? By the end of the book, one can imagine Ms Fielding writing with an eye to the Hollywood film this will no doubt become. All ends neatly tied up- though incredulously (one must suspend one's disbelief) Still a light read that may be worth reading- but not a keeper (ie, I would freely loan it to people I'd never expect to get it back from) and just don't expect Bridget Jones to appear.

Olivia Joules, the heroine of this novel, is a smart, capable, and fashionable journalist who usually writes fluff pieces but aspires to oh, so much more. Her aspirations often combine with her overactive imagination to let her see too much into things sometimes, resulting in not a little embarrassment. And yet, there is certainly something amiss with the supposedly French supposed film producer she meets at a party in Miami...

Soon Olivia is relying on her wits, overactive imagination, survival tin, and Rules for Living to get herself out of jam after jam in every part of the globe.

Fielding's descriptions of places seem to be spot-on (at least the ones I've visited), and her voicing of Olivia's thoughts are hilariously funny. The plot is quite imaginitive, too.

I flew through this book, giggling all the way.

I am a big Bridget Jones fan, so I had high hopes. I was so disappointed in this book. I tried, but I couldn't finish it. The characters were hard to keep straight and I didn't care what happened to any of them. Ultimately, my biggest complaint is the use of terrorism as the plot of what is supposed to be a fun beach read. This book needed to choose a genre.

It's okay...less "chick lit"-ish than the Bridget Jones books, and laced with espionage.

The main character is fairly likeable. Where Bridget was about 65/35 loveable/infuriating, Olivia is more in the likeable/exasperating range, and about 50/50. But she's still a very cool character, and the plot is sometimes silly, but fun, with some surprisingly affecting and somber interludes.

I don't really want to compare it too heavily to "Diary" and "The Edge of Reason", because those books had their start in a very different kind of writing. Short, episodic pieces for a newspaper column are not written in the same way as a flat-out novel. And while Fielding is not quite as good at the flat-out novel as she was at the columns, "Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination" is certainly not chopped liver.

It isn't an Earth-shaking, life-changing read. It is an engaging and enjoyable light novel, with a strong, confident, resourceful female protagonist. As escapist fair goes, it goes pretty well.