Cause Celeb

Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary had a meandering, rather shapeless shape (as diaries will). Both fans and critics of that 1998 smash hit will be surprised to find that the author's first novel, previously unpublished in the United States, is a lot more sophisticated in structure. And Cause Celeb is nearly as fun as Bridget Jones's Diary , which is saying a lot, especially since Fielding's debut is about African famine. The narrator, Rosie Richardson, runs a relief camp in the invented country of Nambula. Henry, the most flippant member of her staff, wears a T-shirt that tersely lists the various motivations for relief workers to come to Africa: "(a) Missionary? (b) Mercenary? (c) Misfit? (d) Broken heart?" As Rosie herself admits, she is "a c/d hybrid and soft in the head to boot." Flashbacks reveal that in London, Rosie had fallen in love with an erratic, emotionally abusive (but adorable!) newscaster. As she trailed about town in Oliver's wake, she came to know his in-crowd of movie stars, directors, and musicians. Her split with this media magnet is what initially sent her to Africa. Four years into Rosie's exile, however, a plague of locusts descends on the crops of a neighboring country, and refugees begin to flood her camp. She decides there's only one thing to do: go back home and round up her old celeb pals for a benefit TV special. It should come as no shock that the London sequences are great fun, as is the climactic collision between movie stars and refugees. But the real treat is Fielding's handling of the camp sequences. Rosie and her staff struggle with their petty emotions as they confront the incredible suffering in front of them. Henry watches in disbelief as some starving refugees move their tent to a better location: "Never mind the old malnutrition--you go for the view." A newswoman visits the camp, and, fraught with emotion after first seeing the starving children, she caresses Rosie, whose response is this: "I hope the famine hadn't turned her into a lesbian." Fielding has found a voice that is both compassionate and irreverent, a rare and wonderful combination. --Claire Dederer From Publishers Weekly Fielding's first novel, published now in the States only following the success of her second (Bridget Jones's Diary), is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving, occasionally scurrilous delight. Rosie Richardson, the administrator of Safila, a refugee camp in the fictional African country of Nambula, needs funds fast. The usual relief agencies are tied up in diplomatic knots, a long-promised supply ship is always 10 days away and it looks as though thousands of refugees are about to come streaming over the border. If they arrive before the food does, hundreds of people will starve to death. Rosie, desperate, does the only thing she can think of: she quits her job, returns to England and organizes a celebrity fund drive. This effort is complicated by the fact that her ex-boyfriend, a manipulative TV presenter named Oliver, is her only access to celebrities. On top of dealing with the self-centered celebs, she must also come to terms with her old attraction to him. This is a tall order, as he is devastatingly handsome and unspeakably selfish. Unsurprisingly, the book turns out to be about growing up; the interest comes when it turns out that Rosie isn't the only one obliged to do so. Crosscutting from past to present, this is a two-for-the-price-of-one story: an amusing satire of the celebrity-obsessed West, and a sharp report on the callousness and inefficiency of relief work in Africa. Swinging from laugh-out-loud funny to heartbreakingly sad, this book will please Fielding's old fans and win new ones. (Feb.) Forecast: Those who doubted Fielding could sustain her momentum may be surprised by her staying power. While this novel won't match the sales of Bridget Jones's Diary, it should do very wellDit has sold more than 500,000 copies in the U.K. and EuropeDwith sales boosted by the February release of the paperback edition of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and, in April, the release of the film version of Bridget Jones's Diary. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Although it's just now being published in the U.S., Cause Celeb is actually Fielding's first novel, written before the phenomenon that was Bridget Jones's Diary (1998). The novel's protagonist, Rosie Richardson, is a publicist for a well-known publishing house who gets to mingle with the "Famous Club," London's A-list celebrities, when she starts dating a vain, controlling television journalist named Oliver. After a few tumultuous, damaging months of dating Oliver, Rosie leaves her cushy job in England to work at a refugee camp in Africa. Several years later, a crisis looms over the camp when Rosie and her colleagues hear of a possible locust infestation threatening a neighboring country that will send countless refugees to the camp. The problem is that supplies are dwindling, and a promised UN shipment seems to be indefinitely delayed. When the UN is slow to act despite Rosie's insistence and the mounting proof of a potential disaster, Rosie takes matters into her own hands. She returns to England to organize her old celebrity acquaintances for a televised appeal for help, but once she gets there, she finds the obstacles in England may be every bit as difficult as the ones she faced in Africa. Though the vacuous and annoying celebrities are sometimes too jarring a contrast to the horrors of war and starvation in Africa, Fielding, for the most part, manages to balance the elements in a first novel that is both humorous and sobering. Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved ...[a] deft mix of important subject matter and social satire. -- Atlanta Journal Constitution ...[a] provocative comic novel...Cause Celeb is so funny, so involving and so honest... -- Milwaukeee Journal Sentinal ...a deeply satisfying story. Fielding writes about Africa without sentimentalizing it, with pointed humor - and tenderness. -- Providence Journal ...a deft, subtle, admirable, pleasurable book. -- Atlantic Monthly ...a modern version of King Lear's Fool; she jokes incessantly but tells the truth and there's a bittersweet power to her comedy.... -- The London Observer ...a terrific, witty story...[a] sophisticated and thoughtful novel... -- USA Today ...an engaging splash of satire and a solid dose of effective drama. -- Miami Herald ...showcas[es] Fielding's real talent for finding humor in even the most tragic of circumstances. -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...the laughs in this novel come from its vivid, cleverly drawn cast of characters... -- People A lusciously well-written satire-witty, wise and very funny. -- Douglas Adams Fiedling's début novel is an entertaining, incisive and wryly amusing look at the relationship between celebrities and charity, interspersed with clever observations on the vagaries of love. -- The Sunday Times, Mariella Frostrup Fielding infuses this commentary on celebrity and charity...with the same dry wit that made her Bridget books so enjoyable. -- Houston Chronicle Fielding writes like a modern version of King Lear's Fool; she jokes incessantly but tells the truth and there's a bitter-sweet power to her comedy of manners set in media-infested London and starving Africa. -- The Observer Incisive and sharp with smart prose and acerbic wit...Cause Celeb is fun, moving and best of all, dead-on. -- Baltimore Sun, January 28, 2001 Juxtaposing the haves of London with the have-nots of Africa without pontification or pathos is one of the things Helen Fielding pulls off so dextrously in this début novel. That she achieves this with both wit and seriousness gets you squinting hard to catch the sleight of hand. -- Independent on Sunday, Maggie Traugott [Fielding] analyzes London party life with the piercing eye of an anthropologist...the African scenes are reminiscent of [Joseph] Conrad. -- Boston Globe Helen Fielding, a journalist and novelist who lives in London and Los Angeles, California, is the author of the worldwide best-seller Bridget Jones's Diary and of the New York Times best-seller Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason . From The Washington Post All of the book's sidesplittingly funny scenes...are exquisitely balanced against more somber episodes... Read more