Diary of a Pint Sized Bridget Jones

After spending a solid afternoon doing nothing but reading Interview With the Vampire the other day,I dashed straight over to Waterstones to pick up some "lighter reading."  You know, something that makes me feel less like I am wandering the world alone for eternity, and more like I can laugh at the tiny tragedies that "ruin" my life.

Turns out Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging was a great choice!

It's a Young Adult fiction book written in the form of a diary.  Fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicholson hates her huge nose, pines after a 17-year-old "Sex God," deals with ferocious beatings from her pony-sized cat, and lets her 3-year-old sister (and her entire chest of toys) sleep with her at night.

Georgia is exactly the kind of girl that I would have wanted to be at 14, and I love reading about her even at 25.

The book has also recently been made into a film by the director of Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha.  I was so pleased to discover Chadha was directing it, and that the film would take place in Britain and star British actors.  So many books that are written by British authors and take place in Britain are Americanized when they are made into films.  Did you know that Cecelis Ahern's book PS I Love You took place in Ireland?  In the movie, Ireland was represented by a pub, a hot husband, and a short holiday.  And Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books take place in England, but the soon to debut movie takes place in America.

I'm not out to argue that the meaning of a British book turned American film necesarily alters in transition from print to screen.  It's the tone, the nuances, the originality, and the culture that are lost.

Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging could easily be made as an "American Movie," but I am glad its not.  Hollywood already makes plenty of movies (many of which I enjoy, by the way).  Let's give other cultures a chance to represent themselves in film too.