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The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 | 
| Author: Sue Townsend
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Category: Book
List Price: £10.99
Buy New: £5.49
You Save: £5.50 (50%)
New (28) Used (6) from £3.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 1294
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0718154894
EAN: 9780718154899
ASIN: 0718154894
Publication Date: November 6, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 A let down! January 3, 2009
Was really looking forward to this release, but was let down by it. It is, as said in other reviews the weakest of the series of diaries. Not really that funny and seems short of ideas and direction, and also a bit on the short side. Would wait till the paperback comes out, not worth a hardback price.
A bit of a disappointment by the Queen of Social Comedy. December 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Sue Townsend is one of my favorite writers as I really enjoy the language Sue Townsend uses and how she captured the characters of each person portrayed. Social comedy is at her hands always at its very finest. Her latest book has all these elements and is a fine book. Helas, there is a but: this is not throughout the book and there are parts which I simply found boring and desperately trying to be funny. Desperation is however not the best of ingredients for a funny, but still meaningful book. So it is a bit of a disappointment by the Queen of Social comedy. Still a fine book, but not one which one has to read.
It might not be the best, but it's still great! December 5, 2008
I love Adrian Mole books and my feelings towards this one was no different.
I didn't find it as hilarious as Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction, however, i don't think this most recently published diary was supposed to have a story line as it was the "lost years". Townsend constantly hints that it is her who has stolen Adrian's ramblings and pieced them together, which i think in itself is extremely clever. It is amazing how she takes every day life and turns it into something so satirical and amusing.
Definately worth a read if you are an Adrian Mole fan.
Funny, though not the best December 3, 2008
The Adrian Mole books are some of the funniest written, and are among the very few that can actually make me laugh out loud. 'The Lost Diaries' is set in between the 'Cappuchino Years' and 'the Weapons of Mass Destruction', Townsend's two most recent novels featuring the Midlands diarist. Adrian is a single father, living on a council estate with his two sons.
All of the familiar elements are there; the endless antics of his irresponsible parents, Adrian's doomed attempts to write fiction, and his unrequited love for Pandora. It's still funny, but not all that fresh and I missed the inventiveness of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', which managed to find new angles and material as well as the typical Adrian-angst we know and love.
In fact, all of this book seemed to be going over old ground and had a feeling of recycling material from the other books. It still has its laugh out loud moments - Townsend is a great writer and always funny - but it is not in the same league as the past two Adrian Mole books. It's also shorter and the minor characters and subplots suffer for it - with old favourites like Nigel and Rosie getting barely more than a name check. Because it's shorter and less layered than the other novels, there isn't the element of pathos and genuine emotion that the others have.
As usual, Adrian combines the telling of the events of his own life with commentary on current affairs of the period (1999-2001 Britain) and so this will strike a chord with many who will remember these events. Thus it provides plenty of recent-past nostalgia, full of happenings which suddenly seem a surprisingly long time ago - the Millenium dome saga, the petrol crisis, the FMD outbreak.
My favourite character is Glenn, Adrian's long-suffering teenage son, and he provides some of the best comic moments. Most of the other characters don't really get enough page time to make an impact, even Pandora is reduced to a few cameos. Overall, the story comes across as rushed. Some threads seem to disappear without much explanation, others are skipped through in a few pages (for instance, the visit of Adrian's brother Brett, of which much more could be made). This lack of detail can make the story seem less plausible as there is less of the day-to-day ordinariness to balance the rather extraordinary events that Adrian inevitably finds himself caught up in.
All the same, criticism aside, it's still the funniest thing I've read all year and I'd recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed the other Adrian Mole books, but with the warning that it's not as good as some of the others.
what happened November 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have read short extracts from this book, which make me wonder if I should read the whole. From the comment by the NZ reader, it appears there are a number of chronological errors and also factual ones (Ivan Braithwaites non-death, etc). Having read the Mole books in sequence and enjoyed them, I would find it irritating to spot these mistakes. Like the NZ reader I too had an idea for a new Mole book (and in fact wrote the manuscript and sent it to a number of publishing agents) - mine is recollections by his friends (enemies) and relations about events in the past, but not recorded in previous books. I was very careful not to make any date/fact errors, and feel that, despite copyright, my manuscript could make as good a read as this latest effort from Sue Townsend - any takers???
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