Considering the number of writers who've tried, and generally failed, to do plummy Bridget Jones one better, it only makes sense that Fielding should take a vacation from the genre she spawned and seek (sort of) greener pastures. Her new inspiration? Think Ian Fleming. Fielding's ridiculous, delicious, wildly improbable plot goes something like this: freelance journalist Olivia Joules ("as in the unit of kinetic energy"), formerly Rachel Pixley (her whole family got run over when she was 14), gets bumped from the Sunday Times's international coverage down to the style pages thanks to the titular imagination (e.g., a story about a "cloud of giant, fanged locusts pancaking down on Ethiopia"). In between ducking twittering PR reps and airheaded blondes at a Miami face cream launch party, she uncovers what looks like an al-Qaeda plot, headed by a dreamy Osama bin Laden look-alike, who is either (1) a terrorist, (2) an international playboy, (3) a serial killer or (4) all of the above. Languid, mysterious Pierre Feramo returns Olivia's interest, and thus begins an around-the-world adventure that has plucky Olivia eventually recruited by MI6. In addition to the fun spy gear (e.g., Chlo shades fitted with a nerve-agent dagger) there are kidnappings, bomb plots and scuba-diving disasters. Olivia is slim, confident and accomplished; ostensibly, she's "painstakingly erased all womanly urges to question her shape, looks, role in life," etc. But she still has her bumbling Jonesian moments, and though she may not need a man, she'll get one in the end. What's wrong with the book: two-dimensional characters, dangling plot threads, the questionable taste of al-Qaeda bombings in an escapist, comic spy novel. What's right: girl-power punch, page-turning brio and a new heroine to root for. (June 8) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
Narrated by Josephine Bailey
Helen FieldingUnabridged — 9 hours, 23 minutes
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
Narrated by Josephine Bailey
Helen FieldingUnabridged — 9 hours, 23 minutes
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Overview
How could a girl not be drawn to the alluring, powerful Pierre Ferramo-he of the hooded eyes, impeccable taste, unimaginable wealth, exotic international homes, and dubious French accent? Could Ferramo really be a major terrorist bent on the Western world's destruction, hiding behind a smokescreen of fine wines, yachts, and actresses slash models? Or is it all just a product of Olivia Joules's overactive imagination?
Join Olivia in her heart-stopping, hilarious, nerve-frazzling quest from hip hotel to eco-lodge to underwater cave, by light aircraft, speedboat, helicopter, and horse, in this witty, contemporary, and utterly unputdownable novel deluxe.
Editorial Reviews
The Bridget Jones series is entertaining and witty, but this new Fielding novel is disappointing. Olivia Joules (orphaned at age 14) moves to London and works as a writer for an international publication. She goes as a freelance journalist to the United States to cover the unveiling of a new face cream. At a party she meets Pierre Ferramo, an attractive Arabian film producer, who captivates her with his good looks and wealth. However, Olivia starts to connect Pierre to other frightening events going on in the area. She becomes convinced that he is a member of an al-Qaeda group in which Islamic fundamentalists drink, smoke, and womanize to disguise their true hatred toward Western culture. A ridiculous, thin, improbable plot based on world events, this wry thriller, read by Josephine Bailey, was clearly intended to be funny, but there is not much humor in this make-believe spoof. Not recommended.-Carol Stern, Glen Cove P.L., NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"It’s hard to imagine a more appealing heroine than Olivia." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Dependably delicious . . . Pitch perfect." —Newsweek
Recklessly cosmopolitan, jet-setting, worldly, adventurous-a 340 page romp." —The Independent
"This is a girl’s own adventure - with added sauce - to rattle through in one entertaining sitting. Helen Fielding is a great comic writer." —The Spectator
"Very addictive…. Fielding’s comic talent lies in her adorable observations.... This is quintessential Fielding." —The Observer
"If Bridget Jones shaped and named a certain kind of life in the 1990s, it looks as if Olivia Joules, Helen Fielding’s new heroine, may do the same for the new decade." —The Times (London)
"Hurrah for Fielding! Yet again she’s picked up on what’s lacking in the girly train read, and whistled us up Olivia Joules: a Jane Bond heroine with a wonderfully overactive imagination…. Fielding’s prose shimmers and glares with wit, sophistication and humanity. A brilliant comic writer, Fielding’s talent exceeds any sociological explanation." —The Independent on Sunday
"Fielding is an extremely skillful and engaging writer. The book works as a fast-paced thriller - I gulped in down in one reading. But it also has great charm and, in its shy fashion, a moral theme." —The Telegraph
"The name is Joules, Olivia Joules.... Post Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding has written an action-packed thriller starring ‘a heroine for the 21st century.’ The result is a book that’s fast-moving and entertaining." —The Guardian
Olivia Joules wants to be a foreign correspondent for the SUNDAY TIMES, but her overactive imagination gets her demoted to the lifestyle pages. While in Miami covering the launch of a skin cream created by the alluring Pierre Ferramo, she witnesses the destruction of a floating apartment complex at the hands of al Qaeda. Olivia is recruited as a CIA/MI6 agent--with weapons in her underwire bra, a GPS earring, and a pocket survival kit-- to pursue the terrorists. Josephine Bailey creates distinctive voices for loony Olivia, the faux-French Ferramo, and the many other characters. Bailey’s witty voice is perfect for the ludicrous moments--of which there are many--but less fitting for the occasional serious ones--for example, when Olivia is rescuing residents from the sinking apartments. Fielding’s fault perhaps, but mildly jarring all the same. A.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172104572 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 10/10/2004 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
By Helen Fielding
Penguin Books
Copyright © 2005 Helen FieldingAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0143035363
Chapter One
LONDON"The problem with you, Olivia, is that you have an overactive imagination."
"I don't," said Olivia Joules indignantly.
Barry Wilkinson, foreign editor of the Sunday Times, leaned back in his chair, trying to hold in his paunch, staring over his half-moon glasses at the disgruntled little figure before him, and thinking: And you're too damned cute.
"What about your story about the cloud of giant, fanged locusts pancaking down on Ethiopia, blotting out the sun?" he said.
"It was the Sudan."
Barry sighed heavily. "We sent you all the way out there and all you came up with was two grasshoppers in a polythene bag."
"But there was a locust cloud. It was just that it had flown off to Chad. They were supposed to be roosting. Anyway, I got you the story about the animals starving in the zoo."
"Olivia, it was one warthog-and he looked quite porky to me."
"Well, I would have got you an interview with the fundamentalist women and a cross amputee if you hadn't made me come back."
"The birth of Posh and Becks's new baby you were sent to cover live for BSkyB?"
"That wasn't hard news."
"Thank God."
"I certainly didn't imagine anything there."
"No. But nor did you say anything for the first ten seconds. You stared around like a simpleton, fiddling with your hair live on air, then suddenly yelled, 'The baby hasn't been born yet, but it's all very exciting. Now back to the studio.'"
"That wasn't my fault. The floor manager didn't cue me because there was a man trying to get into the shot with 'I'm a Royal Love Child' written on his naked paunch."
Wearily, Barry leafed through the pile of press releases on his desk. "Listen, lovey ..."
Olivia quivered. One of these days she would call him lovey and see how he liked it.
"... you're a good writer, you're very observant and intuitive and, as I say, extremely imaginative, and we feel on the Sunday Times, in a freelancer, those qualities are better suited to the Style section than the news pages."
"You mean the shallow end rather than the deep end?"
"There's nothing shallow about style, baby."
Olivia laughed. "I can't believe you just said that."
Barry started laughing as well.
"Look," he said, fishing out a press release from a cosmetics company, "if you really want to travel, there's a celebrity launch in Miami next week for some-perfume?-face cream."
"A face-cream launch," said Olivia dully.
"J. Lo or P. Binny or somebody ... there we go ... Devorie. Who the fuck is Devorie?"
"White rapper slash model slash actress."
"Fine. If you can get a magazine to split the costs with us, you can go and cover her face cream for Style. How's that?"
"Okay," said Olivia doubtfully, "but if I find a proper news story out there, can I cover that as well?"
"Of course you can, sweetheart," smirked Barry.
Continues...
Excerpted from Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding Copyright © 2005 by Helen Fielding. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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