"Cause Celeb" was Helen Fielding's debut novel, in advance of her overwhelming success with "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its sequel. This book does not have the sparkle that the Bridget Jones twosome owns, but all the same elements are there and show the promise to come. The main character and narrator is Rosie Richardson, a literary publicist obviously chosen for her job because of her decorative function at literary events. She is not as shallow as her employer and celebrity friends believe, as events prove in the novel. Rosie lives in London, as the story begins, and meets many of the City's glitterati at publishing receptions, book fairs, hot restaurants, and the homes of the glamourous. She meets the incredibly handsome TV presenter Oliver Marchant who moves from her rich fantasy life to her real life. Marchant is a Jekyll-and-Hyde, seamlessly transitioning from caring boyfriend to demanding egotist. 'Dysfunctional' is not a sufficiently complex adjective to describe their relationship. When Rosie is with Oliver in one of his aggressive moments, she recognizes that he is poison; but she misses him and longs for him, both physically and as her own 'arm-candy', even when she knows she should be looking elsewhere and even when she knows he is with another woman.Finally, she has enough and packs her bags, not simply to escape the London limelight and Oliver's rants, but to go to Africa as a volunteer to help refugees in a (fictional) border camp in a war-ravaged country called Nambula where famine and disease are constant. The story shifts back and forth between Rosie's London life as conditions with Oliver worsen and as the reader is gradually acclimated to her life in the refugee camp. The contrast is considerable because of the glitz factor but also because the generally warm, if eccentric, collection of characters at the refugee camp accentuates the frigid environment with Oliver in London. Rosie is the director of camp at Safila on behalf of the organization 'SUSTAIN'; and she shines spectacularly well at managing the complex politics, fund-raising, assessment of conditions, quantities of food and medicine, and the many organizations with their fingers in the mix. Her assistant Henry Montague has simply moved his marmalade-and-tea routines to the African desert; the occasional drama queen, he is still a capable administrator. Their doctor Betty is due to leave the camp to be replaced by the American Robert O'Rourke, who worked with nurse Linda previously in Chad (and, perhaps, has a relationship with her). Muhammad Mahmoud is a local who is not an official director of the camp but who has the skills and personality to rise to the occasion. Dr. O'Rourke arrives at Safila just in time for rumours of a locust plague, more famine, a huge influx of refugees, and a missing supply ship.Rosie decides to lead an expedition to see these locusts and try to get an estimate of the expected number of refugees. She takes photos to try to twist the arms of the powers-that-be for supplies and aid. A tragedy occurs, and this event plus the sight of thousands of refugees and fields stripped by locusts cause Rosie to call on her media skills. She returns to London to organize an appeal in a very short time. During her absence from London, her celebrity 'friends' have forgotten her. But the rumour mill quickly kicks back into gear as her old boyfriend, the inconstant Oliver, is the leading famous face to step forward to help her organize the famine appeal for television. There are essential details--like getting a broadcasting satellite into position--plus the overwhelming concern about whether or not the starving refugees will show up to their party. Timing turns on a dime, while Rosie wrestles with her own heart over Oliver and the American doctor."Cause Celeb" is well worth reading, although I found I was at the middle of the book before it picked up steam and I got seriously interested. The book is filled with the comic twists associated with Fielding, but, because she spent time in Africa working in a relief camp herself, both the poignant and biting details feel very real. It is fun to watch Rosie turn from social butterfly to socially-conscious (and amazingly able) force of nature. It is also amusing to see in the book the reflection of celebrity faces that daily clamour for our contributions from the latest aid programs on TV.
In "Cause Celeb" Fielding satirizes the pretentiousness of celebrities, the not-always pure motives of humanitarians, the poetical idiosyncrasies of Africans, the tangled and futile politics of foreign aid, and the stupidity of certain women when it comes to relationships. I enjoy Fielding's novels even though I can never manage to relate to her female protagonists, who tend to be shallow women who lack self-respect, initially have bad taste in men, readily engage in casual sex, and play relationship games, only to wonder why they suffer so much angst. I imagine Fielding is satirizing the modern, secular single woman with such characters, but somehow they always manage to end up with a good man despite never fully, completely reforming their approach to relationships. In some ways, "Cause Celeb" is a better satire than Fielding's other books: it is certainly more raw and biting, and that is perhaps why it is not as popular as her lighter works, but that is what makes me more impressed by it. As a satire, however, it is only half formed. While half the book has that clever, biting edge, the other half is all straightforward seriousness. That's not necessarily bad, but it's a conflation of genres that jars a little. In the straightforward parts, she gets a bit heavy-handedly political at times, and although there is certainly some poetry in the telling, and some moving moments, at times the story also drags a bit, and, at other times, the message comes at the reader like a two-by-four. I've quoted a few of my favorite lines from the book below, some satirical, and some non-ironic:"The relationship seesaw: What would you do if it was perfectly balanced? I thought...Much better to be slightly at a disadvantage; so much more fun that way…Much better to have those passionate, tantalizing thrills than endless boring TV suppers, sitting snuggled on the sofa in jeans and an old cardi, not caring what you looked like because inside you were so sure he loved you just for you.""As if love was something you earned like a merit star, and if I followed every single instruction in every single magazine that month…made my own pasta, studied advanced sexual gymnastics, never crowded him…Oliver might decide he was in love with me."On the protagonists first trip to Africans: "I was shocked when I watched Live Aid…But that was a safe breed of shock…This [however:] was the shock of feeling for the first time that the world had no safety in it, that it was not governed by justice, and that nobody who could be trusted was in control. It was the shame of feeling that I shared responsibility for this horror and of breaking down and ceasing to function…"On adjusting to ordinary western, upper class life after her initial, powerfully unsettling experience in Africa: "Quickly I grew less deranged. I had begun the process of calming down, assimilating and compromising, which is necessary to live comfortably in the world as it is, and probably is why its imbalance never changes." On the fact that Africans, unlike Westerners, didn't care if their prosthetic limb looked real: "As long as the limb worked, they just wanted to get on with their lives. It wasn't something they bothered to disguise. Maybe this was because of the war and the proliferation of mines. I suspect it had more to do with what they valued in each other."
What do You think about Cause Celeb (2002)?
Okay, full disclosure, I did not finish this book. I picked it up thinking, "Hey, I wonder what Helen Fielding's writing is like when it's not BJ's Diary." To be honest, it's pretty darn good. I don't know if she's ever lived in Africa, but she really picked up on a lot of good detail. I stopped reading the book because it was breaking my heart. Too much human suffering for me to handle right now. Still too wound up from the whole Mommy hormone thing. I am impressed with HF's writing and will come back to this book when I have the chance. If you are not on the mommy hormone roller coaster, I would recommend giving it a try.
—Gayla Twist
If you're looking for another Bridget Jones, don't. Rosie Richardson is her own character -- equally relatable (if less horrifyingly so) but more grounded. Cause Celeb, unlike the Bridget Jones books, deals with an actual horrible situation that has nothing to do with ironing one's awfully curled hair. This was written before Bridget, so Fielding seems to be developing her voice still. You can definitely see growth between this and her later work.Regardless of the differences, it's a good read. It made me want to know more about aid work and whether aid workers actually go through this situation (notifying agencies of impending crises and getting no response or patronizing, empty reassurances) frequently. At multiple times, I wanted to BE an aid worker.
—Rebekah
Another book on tape that I got from the library because the pickings were slim but it pleasantly surprised me. I would give it 3 1/2 stars if that were possible. I've never read Bridget Jones' Diary (but did see the movie), so my expectations were not too high. After a slow start where it seems like the story is merely a bunch of inane characters who are complaining about their celebrity lifestyles, the book takes a complete turn when Rosie, the main character, moves to a refugee camp in Africa. When the two worlds collide, it is both hysterically funny and heartbreakingly tragic, and the ending is quite powerful. A character named Mohammed, who keeps his dignity and great sense of humor in the midst of horrendous circumstances, touched me greatly. I will never stop to read the BJ Diaries, but I am very glad that I invested my time in this story.
—Bev
