Leicestershire - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend

[chesilbeach]

LEICESTERSHIRE
 
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
 
Synopsis:
Friday January 2nd
I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.
 
Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.
 
 
Other Leicestershire books:
The Right To An Answer by Anthony Burgess

[Janet]

 

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾  by Sue Townsend

 

Unfortunately the book disappeared from my Nook before I could get my thoughts down so this isn’t a very comprehensive review. 

 

Thursday January 1st

Bank Holiday in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales

 

These are my New Year’s resolutions:

 

1. I will help the blind across the road.

2. I will hang my trousers up.

3. I will put the sleeves back on my records.

4. I will not start smoking.

5. I will stop squeezing my spots.

6. I will be kind to the dog.

7. I will help the poor and ignorant.

8. After hearing the disgusting noises from downstairs last night, I have also vowed never to drink alcohol.

 

My father got the dog drunk on cherry brandy at the party last night. If the RSPCA hear about it he could get done. Eight days have gone by since Christmas Day but my mother still hasn’t worn the green lurex apron I bought her for Christmas! She will get bathcubes next year.

 

Just my luck, I’ve got a spot on my chin for the first day of the New Year!  

 

So begins Adrian Mole’s diary.   Adrian Mole is a similar age to me. His Wiki page has him born in either 1967 or 1968.  When this book was first published I was 16 years old and it probably wouldn’t have appealed to me.   As an adult I wish I had read it then, because although it’s written from a boy’s point of view there was a lot of it that I probably could have related to – although were paperboys’ wages really as low back then – or was Adrian just badly paid?  I can’t remember the amount he earned now (it was one of the passages I’d made a note of) but it seemed an absolute pittance!  I guess it must have been accurate but wow, hardly worth getting out of bed for!  Anyone who remembers the 80s will enjoy it, but even if you don’t remember that decade it’s still a great read.

 

Some of the challenge books really give a feel for the county they’re set in, whilst others could have been set anywhere.   I’m not sure this gives a flavour of Leicestershire, but I’m glad it was chosen to represent the county because otherwise I’d never have read it and that would have been a shame as I really enjoyed it.  I have reserved the next volume from the library.

 

The paperback edition is 272 pages long and is published by Puffin.  It was first published in 1982.  The ISBN is 978 0141315980.  

 

4/5 (I really enjoyed it)

 

(Finished 26 February 2014)

[Athena]

Nice review! It sounds like an interesting book to read .

[Alexi]

So glad you enjoyed it! I reread this recently so I'm not going to reread again. I read the first two volumes as a teenager and adored them, but I'm scared of trying the next volume when he's more of an adult. I really should though!

[Janet]

Thanks Athena and Alex.

 

I've just had an email to say volume 2 is ready for me to download. 

[poppyshake]

Great review Janet Glad you enjoyed it.

I've loved all the Mole books I've read so far but want to start again before getting to the later ones.

 

I've got a really soft spot for this one in particular as it's the only fiction book my Dad has ever personally gone out and chosen for me. I was unwell (it was the first time I'd been unwell with ME back in the 80's .. though nobody knew then what was wrong with me) and Dad got me this because it was making him laugh on Radio 4. He described it as being 'about a soppy boy'

[willoyd]

Copied over from my book blog. Rather a different take to Janet's!

 

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend **

I read this as part of the English Counties Challenge, it being the Leicestershire selection. It came with a reputation for being a classic of humorous writing, dating from the early 80s. The plot needs little introduction: the diary of a teenage boy, geekish, seeing the world through his eyes, with all the accompanying priorities (spots!), angst, and misperceptions.

 

It's a fairly short, quick read, less than 200 pages. This was a distinct blessing, as even over this relatively short distance, the central joke of Adrian's life, his Pooterish failure to grasp what's really going on, steadily palls. The first time he misreads the situation it's mildly amusing (I can't say I found any of it funny - certainly not enough to raise more than a smile), the next time less so, the umpteenth time it's just repetitive and obvious.

 

An additional problem with the book is that it now feels very dated. This is a slightly odd thing, because all books with a contemporary setting effectively date, reflecting the times in which they are written (Dickens, for instance, cannot be anything other than a Victorian writer). What makes them last is if they have something worthwhile to say about their own time, or something that goes beyond the time constraints to which the reader can relate. In theory, Secret Diary should do this - teenage angst, for instance, is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. And yet, there is something of this book that buries it in that era to the extent that, at least for me, it simply doesn't relate. Whereas I can well remember the local street party to celebrate Charles and Diana's wedding (now that dates it!), I just find that all it does is remind me when it was written. Maybe it's too far away to feel contemporary, yet still too close to be 'historical'?

 

Or maybe, and perhaps more likely, I simply don't relate to the humour, which is largely the sort of cringe-making style that programmes such as The Office fed off (and, guess what?, I find Ricky Gervais seriously unfunny). After all, I described Adrian as Pooterish, and The Diary of a Nobody was a book that I couldn't abide.

 

Whatever the reason, this is, so far, the book in the English Counties Challenge which I have disliked the most. And, whilst it may indeed be set in Leicester, the setting is pretty much irrelevant - it could be any suburban area. All in all, I was wondering whether to give it one star, but it may have just scrambled two.

Edited May 23, 2016 by willoyd

[chesilbeach]

This was a re-read for me, albeit over 30 years since I first read it!  In fact, I think I was 14 when I read it, borrowed from a friend who had read the hardback and loved it.  I was amazed at how I remembered almost everything the happened from that first read so many years ago, and also, how much I pictured the television series from the 80s as I was reading it.

 

So much of this read was nostalgia for me, as I was about the same age as Adrian when the book came out, and it was one of those books that everyone in my class read - without have to be forced to for homework! - I guess, a bit like the Harry Potter of its day.  We were able to relate to it as we were the same age, and all going though similar times in our own lives, so most of my enjoyment was completely tied up with the memory of that time in my life.  And enjoy it I did.  It's not great literature, but I thought it was entertaining, and it was a very easy book to read, the pages just slip by.  I think I might have read the second book when it came out, but that was as far as I went with the series and I can't say I'd go back and read it again now.  

 

I'm a little surprised by its enduring appeal, as to me it does feel very much of its time, but I guess the easy going nature and the gentle humour of it make it a popular choice.