Sue Townsend, England, 2000, 391 pp.
Genres: Fiction, Humour, Young Adult
I chose this book, again, randomly at the Little Free Library in my neighbourhood, basically for two reasons. First, because I saw on the cover that it is the “number one bestseller”, which is usually appealing or somehow heightens my expectation that it should be at least good, if not great. Second, thanks to the comment on the back cover, “I can’t remember a more relentlessly funny book”. This made me think I found another perfect novel category, considering the strange moment we are living in with the pandemic situation.
Sue Townsend was a British writer and humorist, who worked as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and columnist. This bestseller is actually part of a series of nine books in total, for which she is best known. Among them are, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ (1982), Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (1993), and Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years (2009). The main character – Adrian Mole – has appeared as part of a comic diary in a magazine, on BBC Radio broadcast, and as well in the British television series. I want to highlight that it is impressive to see that the author had worked her whole life for the same character, capturing a fictional boy’s entire ‘life’.
Nevertheless I wasn’t aware of all its popularity when I selected this fiction novel to read. On the contrary, I wouldn’t have chosen it in the first place. Simply because, I would feel like I was jumping in the middle of a long sequel and missing a big part of the story. Guess how I felt reading it, being ignorant about the existence of the series? Just like I described I would.
Although I’ve heard once that reading the first fifty pages should be enough to know if the story will ‘speak’ to me or not, some people would say even fewer than that. A friend of mine says, “no way, twenty pages is my maximum”. I have no clue why I continue being stubborn reading over a hundred pages, in this case, before giving it up.
First of all, the subject of politics has never been one of my preferences. Secondly, I usually have a hard time to feel engaged with a story that has too many characters, despite being aware they’re not all important. Perhaps my interpretation here is not totally right. Otherwise why would the author include at the very beginning of the novel a “List of Principal Characters” which amounts to ninety-four in total, presented in seven pages. I know it’s such an odd and purposeless act, isn’t it? And what if I told you that I counted the list twice, because I just couldn’t believe this high number; moreover because I wanted to be precise with the right number to share with you here. As if you were going to check me out on this or something. Go figure! Thirdly, even though I could identify lots of jokes, I probably laughed at only a couple of them. So, taking into consideration any cultural difference, it wasn’t funny for me.
With all that said, the last straw that made me stop trying was the fact that I didn’t feel anything about the Adrian Mole character. No love, no hate, no curiosity – actually I did feel something – I felt uninvolved and indifferent towards him. I knew some aspects of his life. He was divorced and had a son who was living with his parents. Apparently, he didn’t know how to cook. Yet he was a chef in an important restaurant. I didn’t know anything about how or why he got where he was in his life, and even worse I didn’t have any idea what were his dreams, hobbies, desires or goals for his present or future life.
Consequently, not knowing where he was coming from, nor where he was heading to, I felt lost in a story with no purpose, suspense or excitement. Certainly, reading only a quarter of this book doesn’t make me capable of saying too much about it, but I guess it should be sufficient to figure out what was the story’s conflict or question, or the author’s intention. And it isn’t the case. Hence, here lies my skepticism about why it’s not mentioned somewhere (at least I didn’t see it) that this volume is part of a series. Not just to warn readers, but also to inform and suggest they check the other publications prior and consecutive to this one.
Now, if you wonder if I am curious or interested in checking out the books in the Adrian Mole series, from the beginning to the end (this time), and perhaps change my impression about this one…. the answer is: not in this life :P.
If you have only read this book (or another one) from the series, like myself, and have either the same or a different opinion, please leave a comment. I would love to learn something from you.