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Sometimes chic lit's all you need to get through your day. Tah-ruly.With this novel I did not find what Bridget Jones brings to the table, nor what (the poor man's B Jones) Jemima J. experiences in the wacky world of Hollywood. I found something a bit more serious, some sad descriptions of a famished country in Africa (I keep reading about poor, poor Africa!!), a tint of pathos that both aforementioned heroines barely only hinted at. This one's combination comedy and tragedy... very well balance...
I can't understand why this only averages a rating of 3! This is definitely very different from the Bridget Jones series, but the author's vivid descriptions of Africa alone made me want to jump on a plane. The scene where the massive wave of famine victims were cresting the hill will live in my mind for the rest of my life. In Cause Celeb, a bunch of shallow actors were milking the media attention from a famine relief campaign but got the education of their lives when they were confronted with
In "Cause Celeb" Fielding satirizes the pretentiousness of celebrities, the not-always pure motives of humanitarians, the poetical idiosyncrasies of Africans, the tangled and futile politics of foreign aid, and the stupidity of certain women when it comes to relationships. I enjoy Fielding's novels even though I can never manage to relate to her female protagonists, who tend to be shallow women who lack self-respect, initially have bad taste in men, readily engage in casual sex, and play relatio...
Reading this book is like sitting with your butt in the middle of two chairs. I really like BJD 1 and 2 (yes, the second book too!) and i hated olivia joules. So when i picked this one out of my shelf, i had the intention to read it as fast as i could and to give it away to whoever would be kind enough to take it. But i don't know anymore. Because even though reading about rich laughable people doing humanitarian work is not something that is entertaining to me, i still think this that this book...
This book is about Rosie, who, after finally breaking up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend, Oliver, goes to do relief work in Africa. Because the UN isn't sending needed supplies, the refugee camp is running out of food. Rosie has to return to London and try to get the celebrities she used to associate with to come to Africa and do a benefit. What really kept me reading the book is that I really liked and empathised with Rosie. She seemed like a good person, and I could relate to her belief...
I really don't think this book deserves such a low rating. It's not at all what I expected when I picked it up and read the tag line, "from the author of Bridget Jones' Diary," but that's not something the book should be punished for. Truly, the blending of genres within this book, the biting swing between satirical humor and a no holds bar look at the world's inequality, is masterfully done. It's jarring because it's supposed to be jarring. One second you're laughing about pompous celebrities a...
Okay, full disclosure, I did not finish this book. I picked it up thinking, "Hey, I wonder what Helen Fielding's writing is like when it's not BJ's Diary." To be honest, it's pretty darn good. I don't know if she's ever lived in Africa, but she really picked up on a lot of good detail. I stopped reading the book because it was breaking my heart. Too much human suffering for me to handle right now. Still too wound up from the whole Mommy hormone thing. I am impressed with HF's writing and will co...
Rosie Richardson isn't Bridget Jones, but I did like her in spite of her highly improbable adventures in the world of the rich and famous and then in a fictitious African country on the verge of collapse due to starvation. It skewers the media world with its insatiable appetite for intensity and excitement, at any cost, and the cluelessness of people in the "developed" world (and not just the 1%). Good story.
Ugh. It was not funny. I tossed it in the recycle bin because I don’t want anyone else to make the mistake of reading it.
It's not quite as funny as Bridget Jones, not quite as adventurous as Olivia Joules, but for me, Cause Celeb has more heart, and truth, than any other Fielding book. The comedy is strange and honest. I wonder if Lena Dunham of GIRLS fame has ever come across this book, because Rosie and Dunham's Hannah character are cut from the same cloth.The story is funny, gut-wrenching, loving, and inspiring. Fielding does an excellent job of posing some pretty serious questions to the reader including, what...
Written earlier than the Bridget Jones books, and much deeper. Not just an interminable diary about pounds lost and gained, drinks drunk, and fellows not won; Cause Celeb is about a Bridget-like woman who transcends all that, goes to Africa to work in a refuge camp as a 20th century woman's analog of the French Foreign Legion, and discovers how unnecessary and unmerited her previous obsessive insecurity was. A charming book. I don't know why this one wasn't made into Helen Fielding's first movie...
"Cause Celeb" was Helen Fielding's debut novel, in advance of her overwhelming success with "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its sequel. This book does not have the sparkle that the Bridget Jones twosome owns, but all the same elements are there and show the promise to come. The main character and narrator is Rosie Richardson, a literary publicist obviously chosen for her job because of her decorative function at literary events. She is not as shallow as her employer and celebrity friends believe, as...
Sticking with the Brits, this is Fielding's first novel. Bridget Jones meets Bob Geldof, half set in London with another pretty young woman thinking herself always too fat, loving an abusive asshole, drinking a lot and freaking out about make-up and stockings and shaving, the other half with her working as an aide in a refuge camp. Since Rosie is more intelligent and competent and assertive than Bridget, even though both are creatures of the publicity and media world, and since Fielding herself
I'm conflicted about this book, and not just because it makes you question how you throw away food when the world is starving, and what real help looks like. It just doesn't do that very well. I kept feeling like I was missing bits that were important, and then I started to think my book must be missing pages. Like a whole chapter right before the very end, for example. One minute Oliver is being himself and Rosie says people don't really change and the next moment, there's continually media att...
This book is being passed around at work for obvious reasons (that it's about a woman working for a nonprofit agency who is trying to get celebrity support for a refugee camp in Northern Africa). I thought this was interesting because instead of the protagonist working for a fashion magazine, she works in a refugee camp in Africa. As this is written by the author of Bridget Jones, perhaps this will get more people interested in supporting international causes, or at least aware of them. Maybe/ma...
Having read Bridget Jones & another novel of Fielding's I was excited to read Cause Celeb. From the very beginning I was disappointed. The lead character is not really developed & she makes choice that I cannot understand or respect. She ended up driving me nuts, as did almost every character in the book. The dialogue for certain characters, like Nadia & Andre, was very annoying & was hard to read smoothly. There is also very little humor or romance in this book. While you feel for the refugee s...
I was not expecting a compelling novel about African famines to have any humor whatsoever. But, like M.A.S.H., this novel originates in a place of truth. Fielding's own journalistic and producing experiences with Comic Relief in the '80s formed a strong foundation of in-depth, accurate information in this novel. This is a powerful book--Rosey begins her career as director of an aid camp primarily to get away from a lousy boyfriend, but the romantic escapades take a backseat to the character's gr...
This book was not at all what I expected. When I picked up this Helen Fielding book at a used book sale, I figured I would be getting another semi-silly, light, romantic read from her, but it turned out to deal with much more heavy issues including famine and emotional abuse. It was well done for the most part and I enjoyed the book.
I wanted to like this book, it just didn't come together for me. It was not believable.
"I wish we could call a grown-up." The words slipped out without me wanting them to, but for once they were the right thing to say."So do bloody I, I can tell you," said Debbie."Me too," said Henry."I am a grown-up, and I want my mother," said O'Rourke. Other than the above line that made me laugh, this wasn't funny? I was very disappointed. Maybe it's just that I read it 20 years after it should have been read.