The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾.
Adrian Mole- one of the funniest characters I have ever encountered, in fiction and real life. Adrian Mole is innocent and wise. He is observant and obsessed with himself. He is dumb and he is a genius. No matter what he does…he is damn funny!!
Adrian lets the reader peep into his world through his diary. By the end of the book, Adrian ceases to be just a fictional character created by Sue Townsend. Anyone who has read ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ will unfailingly notice a striking similarity between Adrian Mole and Holden V Caulfield. These characters have been beautifully crafted with the help of pen, paper and imagination!
Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ strongly feels he is a ‘misunderstood intellectual’ and spends his time reading critically acclaimed books like Pride and Prejudice, Waiting for Godot and the Female Eunuch. He is upset that none of his teachers in school are able to recognize his genius and warns that they will regret it when he is famous. Adrian, the genius, spends some of his time (involuntarily) taking care of the aged and visiting the home for senior citizens. He complains of being malnourished and blames his parents for all the spots on his face. He is upset that his mother leaves him and his father for an escapade with another creep and observes that he will grow upto be a disturbed man owing to his disturbed childhood. He also tells us that his father is not careful with his redundancy check, otherwise known as dole.
Adrian, like most adolescents, battles chaos within and around him. He is madly in love with his classmate Pandora and frequently mentions his love and his emotional ‘unions’ and ‘reunions’ with her. The author uses this character of Adrian not only to make the reader laugh (and laugh so hard that you will cry!) but she blends her wit, humor and sarcasm to highlight some serious issues. If one reads carefully between the lines, we understand that the writer mocks the society, the “mature” adults who fail to be responsible parents, the National Health Service and the fact that many in the country are unemployed (a student writes- ‘three million unemployed’ on Margaret Thatcher’s photograph).
In a book as funny as this, there are many painful moments where the reader will find himself guilty of laughing at Adrian’s distress. One such heart-rending moment is when Adrian realizes about his parents splitting up. In despair he says, ‘All we are arguing over now is who doesn’t get custody of Adrian. Surely my father made a mistake. He must have meant who did get custody of me.’
This book is a guaranteed way of increasing your blood circulation. Page after page, Adrian will make you smile, laugh, guffaw and wipe your tears to prevent any blurring. Just the way Adrian ends many of his musings in his diary, I would end this review too…Ha! Ha! Ha!
For more of insanity, you can also read
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole
Adrian Mole The Wilderness Years
Adrian Mole The Cappuccino Years
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction
You can also visit adrianmole.com