Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

June 7, 2004
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., Chloé 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.

July 5, 2004
Audio reviews reflect PW
's assessment of the audio adaptation of a book and should be quoted only in reference to the audio version.
Fiction
OLIVIA JOULES AND THE OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION
Helen Fielding
, read by Josephine Bailey. Penguin Audio
, unabridged, eight CDs, 9 hrs., $34.95 ISBN 0-14-280076-7

London freelance reporter Olivia Joules may just be imagining that sexy Pierre Ferramo, whom she met at a face cream launch in Miami, is a terrorist, but she's not taking any chances. She follows him first to L.A., where she picks up a "spy ring" and a bug detector disguised as a calculator, and then to Honduras, where she falls in with a group of local scuba divers and learns that Pierre may be involved in some shady underwater dealings. But Olivia's travels don't end there. Before long, the aspiring spy finds herself in Egypt and then Sudan. Narrator Bailey handles the frequent change in setting skillfully, switching nimbly from the accents of a Honduran housekeeper to those of an Egyptian taxi driver. Although her American accent never quite rings true, no other reader could rival her performance of Olivia. Bailey's voice captures the essence of Fielding's intrepid heroine, her self-assurance, her determination to face challenges head on and her yearning to be appreciated for her strength, keen intuition and wild imagination. Fielding (Bridget Jones's Diary
) has created a heroine for a new era, and with Bailey at the helm of this audiobook, listeners will gladly sit back and enjoy her outrageous exploits. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Forecasts, June 7).