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By Barbara McGuire

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Bridget Jones is every woman’s new best friend.

A single woman in her 30s, or a “Singleton,” Jones is a character who maintains traits that all women can relate to. Her adventures, or misadventures, into the world of dating past her “prime,” when men her own age begin going for 20-somethings, are recorded in “Bridget Jones’s, Diary” and continued in “Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason.”

Jones, though this may be hard for many readers to believe, is not a real person. Rather, British author Helen Fielding is her enlightened “girl power” creator who uses comedy to hook readers in this two book series.

The books are written in the first person point of view, as journal entries by Jones herself, giving readers an inside look at her emotions and state of mind throughout everything she experiences. Upon opening the first book, readers meet Jones and begin to understand her mentality through her “New Year’s Resolutions.”

Many of her resolutions, such as one not to “behave sluttishly around the house, but to instead imagine others are watching,” seem unique to Jones. Others, however, like, “I will not sulk about having no boyfriend, but develop inner poise and authority and sense of self as woman of substance, complete without boyfriend, as best way to obtain boyfriend,” seem somewhat universal.

Readers are taken on an emotional roller coaster as Jones enters a dysfunctional, sex-based relationship with her superior whose attraction is entirely based on the fact that she plays hard to get.

Throughout the novels, Jones gets completely different advice from each of her best friends: Shazzer, a hardheaded feminist, Jude, a sucker for her own commitment-phobic boyfriend and Tom, a homosexual male. Their advice thus leaves her without a clue on what to do with herself.

One of the more frequently used words in the novel, which Jones and her friends label practically everyone with is, “emotional fuckwittage.” In layman’s terms this means someone who suddenly backs out of a relationship claiming that “it’s not you, but them” because they suddenly have a commitment scare. Their constant labeling with this term and never-ending redefining always provides a laugh.

Every one of Jones’ friends eventually become subjected to the rejection of one of these “heartbreakers,” as everyone in the real world does at least once in their life, giving the book an almost non-fictional tone, despite the fact it is 100 percent fiction.

Jones writes in her “journal” almost daily, listing at the top of each entry her weight, how many alcohol drinks she’s consumed that day, cigarettes smoked, calories eaten, as well as various other tidbits of daily information. Her self-depreciating comments that go along with this numerical write up also may put a smile on readers’ faces because of how close they might hit home to their own self-perceptions.

“The Edge of Reason,” continues where “Diary” ended, so readers do not experience any anxiety from this leap to another novel. Jones is seemingly much more self-disciplined, though one wouldn’t go so far as to say mature, in this novel. Her low self-esteem and game playing, however, are somewhat frustrating and readers may just want to scream at her to look at the “big picture.”

The books, however, are not just self-narrated encounters that Jones has with one man to the next. Readers also witnesses to her embarrassing family who is always trying to set her up with men that are her polar opposite. For example, her mother who suddenly has a mid-life crisis, leaves Jones’ dad and runs off with Julio, a Latin con-man. In addition, there are many other funny dramas she experiences at her workplace, a wedding, and other random settings.

In short, Jones character seems relatable to just about every woman. Any woman who has ever felt insecure next to a model-looking woman, any woman who has ever been in love, any woman who has ever been used, cheated on and hurt. She gets women to laugh at themselves, realize there are sometimes, though rarely, psychotic lapses, and even help them understand their bizarre motives a little better.

Bridget Jones is the singleton goddess/guru for everyone, regardless of sex or age. Though her series may seem like something locked up in that “woman only” section, males could just as well relate to the experiences in Jones’s life, enjoy the comedy and learn something about the opposite sex as well. Not a bad idea.