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 Both fans and critics of that 1998 smash hit will be surprised to find that the author's first novel, previously unpublished in the United States, is a lot more sophisticated in structure.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
Fans of the sarcastic humor and rapid-fire dialogue found in bestselling British author Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason will be delighted with the U.S. release of her 1995 debut novel, which juxtaposes the death, disease and despair of a refugee camp against the vacuous mid-'80s London celebrity scene. Gorgeous twentysomething literary publicist Rosie Richardson travels to the fictional African country of Nambula to heal from a particularly rough breakup with a devastatingly handsome TV personality. Caught up in the allure of volunteerism, Rosie goes high profile, bringing from London 40 tons of food, a television crew and the ad hoc group Charitable Acts, an assembly of image-conscious celebrities who plan to air an African broadcast of a speeded-up version of Hamlet. Fielding's tale filled with huge egos lends itself exceptionally well to audio, and Quigley scrupulously brings Fielding's vapid, iconic characters to life with her uncanny ability to switch between accents and mood at the drop of a hat, achieving a subtler style of comedy than listeners may expect. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Forecasts, Dec. 11, 2000). Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
As a publicist for a literary firm in London, Rosie Richardson aspires to the world of celebrities where she will be seen on the arm of a charming TV personality. For a while she enjoys her romantic relationship and the attendance at fundraising events to help the famine-struck people in Africa. However, she becomes tired of the superficiality and insensitivity of the people around her; she also finds the moodiness of her partner intolerable. Rosie leaves London and sets out for Africa to help in the refugee camps. In an acerbic manner, Fielding effectively contrasts the plight of the refugees and the difficulty of getting food to them with the glittering lifestyle of the rich and famous. Although the novel, read by Bernadette Quigley, doesn't have the continuous humor and spirit of the Bridget Jones books (Bridget Jones Diary; Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), it does demonstrate the author's wit and her empathy for the single woman looking for her niche. Recommended for women's literary collections. Catherine Swenson, Norwich Univ., Northfield, VT Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Atlantic Monthly
...a deft, subtle, admirable, pleasurable book.


Independent on Sunday, Maggie Traugott
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.


The Sunday Times, Mariella Frostrup
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 Observer
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.


Washington Post
All of the book's sidesplittingly funny scenes...are exquisitely balanced against more somber episodes...


Boston Globe
[Fielding] analyzes London party life with the piercing eye of an anthropologist...the African scenes are reminiscent of [Joseph] Conrad.


USA Today
...a terrific, witty story...[a] sophisticated and thoughtful novel...


From AudioFile
Rosie Richardson works in trendy London, where she interfaces with savvy business executives. When a rocky relationship with a TV mover and shaker plunges her into a world of dysfunctional celebrities, Rosie escapes the madness by traveling to Africa to run a refugee camp. When famine, locusts, depleted medical supplies, an antagonistic neighboring country, and panic threaten a mass refugee exodus into the camp, Rosie turns to her former celebrity associates to raise funds via a dazzling international television appeal. Bernadette Quigley is unlimited in her ability to portray this cosmic cast of characters: Rosie's inner sarcasm; her hotshot ex-boyfriend's self-centered pomposity; celebrity egos and eccentricities; and refugee desperation and selflessness. B.J.P. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


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

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Available for the first time in the United States, Cause Celeb is the hilarious debut novel by British literary sensation Helen Fielding. With the same wit and candor that shot Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason to the top of bestseller lists and forever altered the vocabulary of dating, Fielding executes a remarkable spoof on the altruistic endeavors of commoners and celebrities alike as they unite to combat the horror of famine and neglect in Africa. Populated by larger-than-life characters from London's West End and the unsung heroes toiling anonymously on the Continent, Cause Celeb is a cunning and poignant tale that discloses the romantic underpinnings of life and love in the 21st century.

Rosie Richardson, a frothy young woman trapped in the cauldron of the publishing world, finds herself involved in a dysfunctional relationship with TV personality Oliver Marchant, a Teflon-coated Romeo who slips in and out of her life with greater frequency than she'd like. Disenchanted with their glamorous lifestyle, Rosie packs her bags and (quite literally) heads for the hills, embarking on a personal odyssey through the majestic deserts of Africa to the fictional state of Nambula, where each day's sunrise brings a daunting challenge.

Upon arrival in the sparse refugee camp, Rosie immediately gets a sense of just how eccentric some of her new neighbors are. Muhammed, a local go-between with a flair for melodrama, the burly Irish doctor O'Rourke, and two seasoned nurses are all catalysts for the story who keep spirits alive and send emotions on a roller-coaster ride. When a carpet of locusts wreaks havoc among vestiges of the season's last crops, disease and starvation become a palpable threat that plagues the proud refugees of Nambula with fear.

But stubborn government regimes turn a blind eye to the dangers facing the village, the relief workers' pleas for food and assistance are ignored, and fever and calamity run rampant, forcing Rosie to return to London and enlist the help of her former lover and the motley crew of friends they once shared. In a final, inspired act of desperation, the former publicity flak miraculously pulls off an international appeal with results that far surpass anything she had imagined.

With a winning combination of pathos and humor, Fielding suggests that the real voyage of discovery is not simply in the quest for new landscapes, but in having new eyes to view them with. Ultimately, Rosie does find the peace of mind and passion she so desperately sought, and the success of her cause adds substance to her life and a depth to her character she had never suspected. Like the Bridget Jones novels, Cause Celeb is an easy, enjoyable read. But despite its seeming frivolity, the book paints an insightful and sanguine portrait of modern-day philanthropy. It's just that in the world according to Helen Fielding, even saving lives can be cause for merriment.

--Lauren Foster

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"B.B.J."-Before Bridget Jones.

Helen Fielding's highly acclaimed first novel brings all the insight and charm of the Bridget Jones novels to a brilliantly witty, thought-provoking take on today's woman-and today's world.

Cause Celeb-the critically acclaimed debut novel from a writer with a boundless grasp of the existential and the uproarious-has just landed in America. Deftly skewering the world of celebrity fundraising, Fielding has created an alternately comic and moving satire that straddles the glitter of media London and the horrors of an African refugee crisis.

Rosie Richardson, a twenty-something literary puffette is in a totally nonfunctional relationship with an unevolved but irresistible adult male-a hotshot TV presenter who plunges her into the glitzy, bitchy inane lifestyle of London's It people. Disillusioned with the celebrity world, Rosie escapes to run a refugee camp in the African desert.

When famine strikes and a massive refugee influx heads for the camp, governments and agencies drag their heels. Bringing her former media savvy to the fore, realizing the only way to get food out fast is to bring celebrities first, Rosie returns to the life and man she fled to organize a star- studded emergency appeal from famine-racked Africa.

Seamlessly bridging cataclysm and farce through the insights of a modern-day everywoman, Cause Celeb crackles with insight into fame, passion, and altruism in our time.

FROM THE CRITICS

Baltimore Sun

Incisive and sharp with smart prose and acerbic wit...Cause Celeb is fun, moving and best of all, dead-on.

Observer (London)

...a modern version of King Lear's Fool; she jokes incessantly but tells the truth and there's a bittersweet power to her comedy....

Cosmopolitan UK

A terrific achievement....the camp scenes are as moving and funny as the original M.A.S.H.

Miami Herald

...an engaging splash of satire and a solid dose of effective drama.

Sarah Dessen

The wry wit and sarcasm of her later novels is apparent, but they serve a larger purpose...here... Read all 15 "From The Critics" >

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