Olivia Joules: a new heroine for the 21st century -- from the bestselling author of Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason
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Where do you go after Bridget Jones? Creator Helen Fielding's response has been to go somewhere completely different. Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, Fielding's fourth novel, is a spy-thriller whose sassy heroine, the eponymous Joules, doesn't fret about weight gain, laddering her tights or Chardonnay and fags in the manner of her predecessor. Oh no--Olivia, once plain old Rachel Pixley from Worksop, is a self-made, go-getting journalist for the Sunday Times and Elan magazine with, or so her colleagues at the ST maintain, "an overactive imagination" and an impeccable gift for languages. Both of these come in handy when Olivia is despatched to Miami to cover a face-cream launch, meets the enigmatic Pierre Ferramo, an international playboy, and finds herself on the scene of an al-Qaeda bomb attack. (Question: where, exactly, do Elsie and Edward rustle up that tray of tea from?)
Cue meetings with suitably disreputable people (wannabe film stars, Arab carpet vendors, spies, terrorists) in an array of exotic locales (LA, Honduras, Egypt) as Olivia goes on the trail of the terrorists and, utterly implausibly, is recruited to MI6 (they can't get the staff nowadays). A ridiculous plot is not exactly a hanging offence in a spy-thriller, which is probably just as well here. Sadly, for Fielding, however, we do inhabit a post-Austin-Powers universe and Olivia, a walking digest of Susan Jeffers platitudes, is hard to take: seriously or otherwise. None of it is very funny, nor thrilling. Olivia is more Nancy Drew than Modesty Blaise or, crucially, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.
Still, you can have great fun playing Bond-bingo with the clichés. Family wiped out in freak accident. Tick. Greasy henchmen. Tick. Gadgets. Tick. Charismatic al-Qaeda villain, who to Olivia's amusement, admittedly, really does use the sentences: "It is a great delicacy in our land" and "Evidently, you are connoisseur of great beauty. As am I." (Alas, "I expect you to die, Ms Joules" and "He's inside the belly of that steel beast", do not materialise.) Maybe there's a clue in the title; perhaps the whole shebang is intended to be taken with a huge bag of Saxo. As Scott Rich, the CIA hunk, says to Olivia as the tale closes: "Oh don't be silly, lovey. It's just a figment of your overactive imagination." If only. --Travis Elborough
Review
A Technicolour blast to liberate the grey commuting mind. -- Helen Brown in Independent on Sunday, October 2003
Quite brilliant... funny, downbeat diction and razor-sharp reflections on life and sex... -- Melanie McDonagh in Mail on Sunday, October 2003
You have to be clever to be successfully silly... Fielding pulls it off. -- Jan Dalley in Financial Times, October 2003
Quite brilliant... funny, downbeat diction and razor-sharp reflections on life and sex... -- Melanie McDonagh in Mail on Sunday, October 2003
You have to be clever to be successfully silly... Fielding pulls it off. -- Jan Dalley in Financial Times, October 2003
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a very fast paced adventure, romance, comedy thriller all rolled into one! It is a page-turner, and as soon as I had picked it up I was hooked and couldn't put it down until I had finished! It made me laugh out loud.. so it was probably was a good thing that I read it in my room, otherwise I might have got some strange looks!! Olivia Joules is not a typical spy, for one thing she has a Very overactive imagination, for example, imagining that the very handsome French playboy, Pierre Ferramo, is Osama Bin Laden bent on the Western World's destruction. So against all this Olivia sets herself against the forces of terror armed only with a hatpin (this proves very useful) and a very special underwired bra (which is very uncomfortable but it's all in aid for a good cause!). But saying this, Helen Fielding manages to make this into a very believable thriller..weaving into the story political situations going on around the world at the moment, while still having the Bridget Jones' wit and comedy. I will not be at all surprised if this book is made into a film and is as big a success as Bridget Jones's Diary!
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
i believe the critics have been giving Olivia Joules a pasting. Well, lighten up boys and girls... this book is not taking it's self seriously so perhaps you oughtn't. It is pure escapism: the heroine is delightful, the baddies are all as mad as tea trays, the hero is well, lickable and the bitchy woman...oooh you just want to slap her. I am a voracious reader and i loved this piece of writing. Helen Fielding said she wrote it as a holiday read and that's just what it is.I reckon if you love Bridget you'll love Olivia.
And the film [when & if] will be marvellous.
And the film [when & if] will be marvellous.
46 of 52 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Post Bridget, we've all been anxious to see what's next from Helen Fielding - where would she go? I think we should be thankful we've been offered Olivia Joules instead of the apparently dour northern saga Helen tried writing over the last 3 years. Her new book is light and fun and makes you laugh out loud (cue the strange looks I received on the bus ride home). I can't believe she has weaved a thriller together so successfuly that engages, is a page turner and still has those deft touches of 'girl-dom' that made Bridget so enchanting. Or that she can deal with the definitely not PC subject of Al Quaeda and Bin Laden without causing offence. I read it happily in one sitting, and bought and sent a copy to my sister straight away. She's saving hers for this weekend...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
terrible
Fielding should stick to what she does best, ripping off Pride and Predudice.
Olivia is a completely unrealistic charecter who starts off sounding similar to bridget and... Read more
Olivia is a completely unrealistic charecter who starts off sounding similar to bridget and... Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2008 by Louise Tyson
5.0 out of 5 stars
addictive and highly entertaining
I have given this book 5 stars not because it is great literature but because it does exactly what it is intended to do: it gives the reader pure escapism. Read more
Published on 30 May 2008 by H. Seymour
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect holiday read
Let yourself unwind in this wistful, funny novel. A world away from Bridget Jones (thankfully). This book was the perfect accompaniment to a beautiful tropical island holiday. Read more
Published on 4 May 2006 by C. Coyle
4.0 out of 5 stars
the female james bond only better
this book was so funny but at it's heart it was based around reall issues it was such a great read i finished it in three days and i would love to see move of olivia in the future. Read more
Published on 24 April 2005
5.0 out of 5 stars
She's done it again!!
After reading 'Bridget Jones Edge of Reason' I just simply craved more. And here came 'Olivia Joules'!! Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2005
5.0 out of 5 stars
A big dose of hilarious escapism!!
Having been given this book for Christmas, it was a few months before I actually got around to reading it....but once I'd started it, I couldn't put it down! Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2004 by MissyJSD
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing and risky-themed read.
Olivia Joules is a ditsy reporter who seems to fall in love with every man she meets, hampering her career progress. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2004 by "boppage"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Page Turner
I was so thrilled to see Helen Fielding walk away from the overexposed Bridget Jones toward a very different kind of heroine. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2004 by Bookish Wonder
1.0 out of 5 stars
An arab's respopnse to Ms. Fielding's imagination:
I am so disappointed with Ms. Fielding's book. Bridget Jones was a brilliant modernization of Pride and Prejudice. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2004 by "randa_breuer"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
Helen Fielding has struck gold again! What a fantastically enjoyable read.
Olivia is a self made woman who fears nothing and won't stand for any nonsense. Read more
Olivia is a self made woman who fears nothing and won't stand for any nonsense. Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2004 by Mary-Jane Archer
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