Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding

Cause Celeb Reviews

• 
  Fabian

  Sometimes chic lit's all you need to get through your day. Tah-ruly.
  
  With this novel I did not find what Bridget Jones brings to the table, nor what (the poor man's B Jones) Jemima J. experiences in the wacky world of Hollywood. I found something a bit more serious, some sad descriptions of a famished country in Africa (I keep reading about poor, poor Africa!!), a tint of pathos that both aforementioned heroines barely only hinted at. This one's combination comedy and tragedy... very well balanced. Skillfully so, & even if its not Bridget or Jemima, something must be said about the brave Rosie Richardson. She trades in the culminating superficiality of her purely materialistic world for a higher purpose, a very opposite lifestyle out in Africa helping the starving refuges of Safila. If anything, that both worlds collide & that results are both heartbreaking and funny, gives this novel some substantial sheen that Brit Jones & gem Jemima J lack. Still, this one is Helen Fielding's debut novel, & that too is very noticeable.
• 
  Susan's Reviews

  I can't understand why this only averages a rating of 3! This is definitely very different from the Bridget Jones series, but the author's vivid descriptions of Africa alone made me want to jump on a plane. The scene where the massive wave of famine victims were cresting the hill will live in my mind for the rest of my life.
  In Cause Celeb, a bunch of shallow actors were milking the media attention from a famine relief campaign but got the education of their lives when they were confronted with mass starvation on such a huge scale. This was Helen Fielding at her most sincere, and the writing was excellent: it was not preachy, but it did make me examine my own entitled life. Perhaps the low rating reflects some form of disappointment from readers who were expecting more of the same light fare that we came to expect in the Bridget series?
  Oh well, we readers do tend to pigeon-hole authors sometimes, and can balk at allowing an author any artistic freedom.
  I, for one, was so impressed with this story about a shallow young woman who takes off for Africa after a messy break up. Rosie not only finds her true self in her bumbling efforts to provide aid where it was so desperately needed, she discovers her life's vocation. Rosie's outlook on life was forever changed by her experience as a relief worker. A five star rating for me for excellent character development and storytelling!
• 
  Emily Hemmer

  It's not quite as funny as Bridget Jones, not quite as adventurous as Olivia Joules, but for me, Cause Celeb has more heart, and truth, than any other Fielding book. The comedy is strange and honest. I wonder if Lena Dunham of GIRLS fame has ever come across this book, because Rosie and Dunham's Hannah character are cut from the same cloth.
  
  The story is funny, gut-wrenching, loving, and inspiring. Fielding does an excellent job of posing some pretty serious questions to the reader including, what drives us to help, or not help, others? She's wrapped a human interest story into a fun, chick-lit book. I first read the book ten years ago and it continues to resonate with me to this day.
• 
  Skylar Burris

  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."
  
• 
  Silvio111

  Written earlier than the Bridget Jones books, and much deeper. Not just an interminable diary about pounds lost and gained, drinks drunk, and fellows not won; Cause Celeb is about a Bridget-like woman who transcends all that, goes to Africa to work in a refuge camp as a 20th century woman's analog of the French Foreign Legion, and discovers how unnecessary and unmerited her previous obsessive insecurity was. A charming book. I don't know why this one wasn't made into Helen Fielding's first movie instead of "Bridget." I read this one about once a year just for fun.
• 
  Jill Holmes

  "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.
  
  
• 
  _inbetween_

  Sticking with the Brits, this is Fielding's first novel. Bridget Jones meets Bob Geldof, half set in London with another pretty young woman thinking herself always too fat, loving an abusive asshole, drinking a lot and freaking out about make-up and stockings and shaving, the other half with her working as an aide in a refuge camp. Since Rosie is more intelligent and competent and assertive than Bridget, even though both are creatures of the publicity and media world, and since Fielding herself has worked on documentaries about UK aid for Africa, this is plausible, and actually more welcome than the London chapters, even if those were what would later make Fielding big (even though mentions of catastrophies in Africa et al were always present, and always mixed with quite plausible results with the ditzy heroine's other exploits, humanity as the balancing stone of what is meant to be the eternal female and just makes me sad).
  Fielding is more directly outspoken here - what people could read out of BJ, or ignore if they were very shallow, is here criticised more openly, e.g. weight issues and other (self/society) inflicted plagues esp. in contrast to famine. I had said after "Is That It?" that I wondered just that, what happened later, how did that aid actually work, and this book actually shows that - and Fielding says that in order to keep on living in this world, everyone keeps having to forget the hell "down there", again and again, which is why Cause Celeb can't be a hit.
  
  It would be unfair to my other books if I gave this lots of stars, but it's also unfair how few it has - guess that's due to fans of BJ, which in retrospect seems worse, because Fielding is smart and either caved in or talked down to all those who made chick lit into a genre.
  
  ETA-THREE: Fielding addresses some of the issues that Geldof didn't in ITI, and that came up during or after Live Aid, e.g. the starving as monkey-men. There were more uncomfortable truths that on the flipside aren't that negative - mad bastards can rise to do good, and good people don't care less about trivial things under dire circumstances, to say so would be a lie - faced with hell on Earth small personal concerns can actually become accerbated.
  
  ETA: not only readers but critics coming to this book belatedly seem to read it oddly slanted and plain wrong ... Muhammed is a great character, O'Rourke is not a hunk, that's the point, and there are some genuinely funny scenes in the camp (the purple dog and the fungus man) and a nerve-racking finale, a minor happy end against the backround of the reality of the situation. The sad end is how Fielding predicted BJ herself in these very pages, and how the world reacted to either.
• 
  Shanu

  Reading this book is like sitting with your butt in the middle of two chairs.
  I really like BJD 1 and 2 (yes, the second book too!) and i hated olivia joules. So when i picked this one out of my shelf, i had the intention to read it as fast as i could and to give it away to whoever would be kind enough to take it.
  But i don't know anymore. Because even though reading about rich laughable people doing humanitarian work is not something that is entertaining to me, i still think this that this book has some good points. I'll wait to find some thick self centered friend to give this one to, as a hint.
  
  This book is a mix between Bridget Jones' Diary, An imperfect offering and Eat Pray Love.
  
  The thing is, with Fielding, you want to hate her characters because they are a satire of the modern, unsatisfied, urban, love mess, 30-something woman; but because the author is really talented she makes you like the book. Or at least not hate it.
  There are issues with going to Africa to "find your true self" and the author makes it clear that she knows it but that's sill how her character is.
  
  To make it short i didn't like the part about Africa. It was realistic, accurate, and relevant but i didn't like to read about it in a book labeled as comedy, i didn't like the romance in it, i didn't like that Nambula is fictional (i can see why the author chose this option but it still irks me), i felt butt hurt when the celebrities got involved in it and i cringed until the last pages of the book, i didn't like O'rourke (irrelevant character).
  
  On the story line itself, i didn't quite like how the 4 years gap is managed. It was not credible to me.
  
  I liked how this book made fun of the famous people, journalists and of Rosie herself but it was still not enough for me. Every time I read something by this author i get mad at some topics that are brought in even when it's clear as day that the author knows what she's doing (she knows that her characters are wrong on such or such thing). I would like for them and their ideas to get strongly bashed by some others characters in the book and not just as an innuendo. I want things to get more pointed at in the book itself. Generally whatever happens in the sphere of the romantic relationship is divided into white (o'rourke) and black(olliver) easily but everything else stay in the gray zone.
  
  The whole abusive relationship part was nice to read because it felt real. It was not as humorous as in BJD because this time, the female lead was really into a bad relationship and it was well portrayed.
• 
  Ann

  I'm conflicted about this book, and not just because it makes you question how you throw away food when the world is starving, and what real help looks like. It just doesn't do that very well.
  I kept feeling like I was missing bits that were important, and then I started to think my book must be missing pages. Like a whole chapter right before the very end, for example. One minute Oliver is being himself and Rosie says people don't really change and the next moment, there's continually media attention, it's actually really annoying and stressful and then we're sleeping with O'Rourke and we're done. What did I miss here?
  
  I like Rosie as a character, how she is able to take control of the situation in Africa and we see her growth through the awfulness that was Oliver. The cycle of the relationship is awful and real, although I'll be honest I have yet to work out what the heck Oliver really did (was he an actor, or a director or did he produce whatever Soft Focus was? Didn't really matter but whatever) it made sense to have Rosie stuck in the cycle of celebrity and love. Rosie can take control at the refugee camp, travel through warzones, deal with death everyday and yet Oliver still causes her to lose her footing years later. The book did a great job of showing this and how despite the intense struggle for survival, the affairs of the heart are highlighted and made even more sensitive.
  
  Except it all fell apart for me once she went back to London and then got really confusing when they returned to Nambula with the celebrities. That just seemed like a bad party/press tour of craziness, and I found myself thinking that yeah she did need longer to organize it all. I'm, again, still confused as to what the program really was, there seemed to be some Shakespeare going on, but it was all kind of Band Aid/Live Aid, Comic Relief and pseudo documentary. The end was just kind of a shambles where everyone wants to adopt the twins, but the mother isn't really dead, and yet the guy on the phone keeps raving about how awesome it is to have a live death on camera and we haven't learned a thing here, but it doesn't matter because food is coming. Oh and the Safila camp is better off than the others going forward, and actually it always kind of was.
  I feel like I am supposed to take something away from this book, but again, I don't know what.
  
  Oh and what happened to the locusts?
• 
  Tania

  This book is about Rosie, who, after finally breaking up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend, Oliver, goes to do relief work in Africa. Because the UN isn't sending needed supplies, the refugee camp is running out of food. Rosie has to return to London and try to get the celebrities she used to associate with to come to Africa and do a benefit.
  
  What really kept me reading the book is that I really liked and empathised with Rosie. She seemed like a good person, and I could relate to her belief that she could change Oliver. Some of the scenes of their arguments were really realistic. The book was also quite amusing in parts. The London social scene was hilarious. The spoofing of celebrity was also quite humourous. Fielding has a very engaging style that allowed me to stay interested in the story. She makes some very good points about celebrity without being totally preachy.
  
  I did wish that the celebrities had spent more time in Africa. The last third of the book was actually the best, when the celebrities were planning the benefit. I thought some of the more political stuff in the middle of the book dragged a bit.
  
  Despite the fact that the book dragged in places, it was overall a very enjoyable read. Fielding's an excellent writer, and the story rings true to life. Definitely worth the read!!
  
  
• 
  Katie

  I really don't think this book deserves such a low rating. It's not at all what I expected when I picked it up and read the tag line, "from the author of Bridget Jones' Diary," but that's not something the book should be punished for.
  
  Truly, the blending of genres within this book, the biting swing between satirical humor and a no holds bar look at the world's inequality, is masterfully done. It's jarring because it's supposed to be jarring. One second you're laughing about pompous celebrities and then you're reading about some of the most unfair, fixable yet remaining unfixed, horrors of the world. But that's life--especially for all of us happily ensconced in our 1st world lives: it's easy to spare a thought for less fortunate, to offer your pity and sometimes your credit cards, but then you move on and go about your day filled with its messy relationships, career ladders, and tabloids. The point of this book is to make you think a little bit harder and a little bit further than the simple existence of things like Red Nose Day, etc.
  
  This "chick lit" book is far more than meets the eye, light on romance (though it does take on emotional abuse and unhealthy relationships) and heavy on world issues- definitely worth the read.
  
  (Docked a star because I'm not British as well as 20 years too late to understand some of the humor and cultural references)
• 
  Emily

  This book is being passed around at work for obvious reasons (that it's about a woman working for a nonprofit agency who is trying to get celebrity support for a refugee camp in Northern Africa).
  
  I thought this was interesting because instead of the protagonist working for a fashion magazine, she works in a refugee camp in Africa. As this is written by the author of Bridget Jones, perhaps this will get more people interested in supporting international causes, or at least aware of them. Maybe/maybe not, but even so I think she handled the subject matter very well, addressing the contradictions and challenges that face Westerners working with refugees. I also appreciated that the main character began working in her field for selfish reasons (to escape a relationship)-- I think there is a less-than-fair characterization that all humanitarians are perfect, selfless beings. No, we're people-- flaws and all.
• 
  Susan

  I was not expecting a compelling novel about African famines to have any humor whatsoever. But, like M.A.S.H., this novel originates in a place of truth. Fielding's own journalistic and producing experiences with Comic Relief in the '80s formed a strong foundation of in-depth, accurate information in this novel. This is a powerful book--Rosey begins her career as director of an aid camp primarily to get away from a lousy boyfriend, but the romantic escapades take a backseat to the character's growth and development. The novel is at its best when the action is in Africa.
• 
  Heather Alderman

  This book was not at all what I expected. When I picked up this Helen Fielding book at a used book sale, I figured I would be getting another semi-silly, light, romantic read from her, but it turned out to deal with much more heavy issues including famine and emotional abuse. It was well done for the most part and I enjoyed the book.
• 
  Marci Lambert

  Ugh. It was not funny. I tossed it in the recycle bin because I don’t want anyone else to make the mistake of reading it.
• 
  georgie_porgie

  Refreshing. "Chicklit" with a twist.
  
  I was pleased to learn that Helen Fielding has past experience concerning relief work and refugee camps in Sudan, which added plenty in terms of credibility to this story.
  
  Also, in comparison to some of her other books, this seems much less wishy-washy and grounded. By lacing the story with romantic drama throughout, Fielding manages to keep a light tone apart from in the most tragic of scenes, which provided a sharp contrast. The writing was a good balance between descriptive and to-the-point.
  
  Happy endings all round, but nothing unbelievable. Thoroughly enjoyable, with provoking insights.
• 
  Stefanie

  "I wish we could call a grown-up." The words slipped out without me wanting them to, but for once they were the right thing to say.
  "So do bloody I, I can tell you," said Debbie.
  "Me too," said Henry.
  "I am a grown-up, and I want my mother," said O'Rourke.
  
  Other than the above line that made me laugh, this wasn't funny? I was very disappointed. Maybe it's just that I read it 20 years after it should have been read.
• 
  Jessica

  Mixed feelings on this one. Parts were very good and touching while others were crass and unnecessary.
• 
  AnthouG

  Λονδρέζα αφιερώνεται σε καταυλισμό αστέγων της Αφρικής. Το όνομα του καταυλισμού Σαφίλα.
• 
  Jayne Charles

  This is gutsily written, and highly informative when it comes to the ins and outs of running a refugee camp, and the difficulty of raising awareness and money when people aren’t seen to be “starving enough”. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that tackles the subject with quite such zeal. It was an eye-opener. And yet the storyline back in London, where the narrator gets involved in an emotionally abusive relationship with a media personality and rubs noses with all sorts of flamboyant (and almost universally dislikeable) slebs, sits uncomfortably alongside it. Both were well written, but despite the fact that having the celebs come over and support an emergency appeal was a key part of the novel, the two strands of the story felt horribly jarring. Maybe it’s significant that there is a nostalgic feel to the London sections with the yuppie culture (at its height when the novel came out), and that only recently have questions started to be seriously posed about “white saviours” and the focus on celebrities by organisations like Comic Relief. Either way, an informative read but one that never felt quite like a rounded whole.
• 
  Katie B

  After working as a literary publicist in London and dating a famous television personality, Rosie Richardson decides she is sick of the glitz and glamour and superficial people. She uproots her life and moves to Africa where she runs a refugee camp. With a massive food shortage and more and more refugees entering the camp, Rosie returns back to the celebrity community for help. This is the debut novel of Helen Fielding, author of the Bridget Jones series.
  
  I so wanted to like this book but I just could never figure out what it was trying to be. Parts of it read like a typical chick lit novel and the other parts showed a serious side, tackling the issue of famine in Africa. For whatever reason the combining of the two different styles just didn't work for me. While I was interested in Rosie's work in Africa at first, by the last 100 pages, I just wanted the book to be over. I think this is a case of a book starting off with good intentions and a deep meaning but falling short in execution. I say pass on this book even if you are a fan of Fielding's other novels.
  
  
• 
  Ninja Neko

  What a strange book. On the one hand it's a pure chick-lit story about a naive woman in a sort-of relationship with a narcissist celeb, on the other hand it's a description of the hardships in an African refugee camp. The two are woven together, at first with flashbacks and in the end the storylines merge. It makes for an awkward book to be honest, I didn't know what to make of it. I'm sure this juxtaposition was intentional, but the chick-lit part got on my nerves, and it's never fun to wade through bureaucracy in Africa. After a while though the African part turned very grim, and I actually got interested in finding out what was happening there. Fielding gives credit to a number of NGOs, I gather that the picture she paints is based on reality. I tend to go for escapist literature, but her descriptions of this situation caught my interest and made me think about something I admittedly tend to avoid.
  Still, it's not a book I either enjoyed or would recommend, the mix in genres just didn't work for me.
• 
  Ann

  The author of Bridget Jones's Diary started her writing career with this unusual story that mixes light-hearted romantic entanglements with a serious story about displaced people in an impoverished nation.
  
  Rosie Richardson, in an almost unbelievable transformation from puffette (a publicist in a publishing company) to running a refugee camp in Africa entertains with her honest voice. First enthralled with her TV presenter boyfriend and then disillusioned with his unpredictable cruelty she runs away to do something worthwhile with her life.
  
  Fielding manages to make this work as Rosie deals with the ramifications of a possible plague of locusts, while remembering what led her to flee to the dark continent.
  
  The story builds to a wonderful climax with memorable scenes.
  
  
• 
  Victoria Zieger

  I seriously didn't like any of the characters in this book. It was so hard to get through. It just didn't have any elements of true entertainment where I was really interested or wanted to know what happened in the end.
• 
  S

  This was a very good read, and whoever wrote the blurb for it should be fired immediately.
  This isn’t “hilarious” or a “spoof”.
  There are humorous moments throughout, but a lot of darkness too..but it isn’t overdone or overly dramatic.
• 
  Lindsay Underwood

  If I'm reading chick lit I want chick lit. The author tried to put in way too much emotion for what was really a love story in the end. Also lots of characters that just didn't matter and never got developed.