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.

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?

Ce livre n’a aucun intérêt. Il s’agit du 3ème livre que je ne finirai pas dans ma vie …

*3.5

I picked this up a few years back, tried to read it but never really got into it. I picked it up recently and I love it, I finished it in under 2 days. This is Fielding's 1st novel, before Bridget Jones made her career. The writing style is very different, the subject matter much more serious.

The main character, Rosie, is a refugee camp administrator in a fictional African nation trying to get the world to pay attention to a famine that everyone says is not going to happen. And no one will listen to her, not the UN, not the local governments.

So she decides to use celebrities to get the money and food need to help the tens of thousands of refuges she expects will start showing up at her camp. It is at times funny and heart-breaking, I don't know how Fielding accomplished that balance. Fielding also writes some good commentary for and against the practice of using celebrity figures to raise awareness of genocide, famine, floods, wars, etc. Overall, this was a surprisingly entertaining and meaty story. I can't bring myself to categorize this as "chick lit"

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!!

Judul: Cause celeb
Penulis: Helen Fielding
Penerbit: Gramedia
Dimensi: 480 hlm, 18 cm, cetakan pertama Januari 2005
ISBN: 979 22 1200 0

Alasan menjadi relawan:
a. misionaris?
b. prajurit bayaran?
c. orang aneh?
d. patah hati?

Rosie Richardson merasa dirinya perpaduan antara c/d saat memutuskan menjadi relawan di Afrika. Bermula dari kesal terhadap pacaranya, Oliver yang merupakan selebriti, Rosie memilih pergi ke Afrika, tepatnya Nambula.

Dia tidak pernah menyangka bahwa ia akan betah dan semakin tenggelam dalam dunia kerelawanan. Empat tahun sudah dia lewati di Nambula, yang berkali dilanda bencana kelaparan, peperangan dan wabah penyakit.

Namun tahun ini, semua bencana itu begitu besar dan menghabiskan seluruh persediaan makanan, obat, dan juga tenaga. Mengetuk PBB dan beragam LSM lain tidak mendatangkan hasil. Hanya janji kosong. Tercetuslah sebuah ide brilian yang bisa Rosie lakukan demi jutaan nyawa yang sedang di ujung tanduk. Sayangnya hal itu mengharuskan dia kembali ke London dan berhubungan lagi dengan Oliver, segenap selebriti, dan dunia hedonis yang telah lama ia tinggalkan. Akankah rencananya berhasil?

Membaca ini, seakan saya diingatkan lagi niat dan motivasi saya bergerak sebagai relawan di tiap komunitas yang saya ikuti. Rosie menggambarkan sosok naif namun nyata dalam cerita ini. Meskipun lagi-lagi konten dewasa tetap menjadi bumbu utama, namun deskripsi Afrika, artis, dan bagaimana NGO serta PBB bergerak cukup terwakili.

Saya apresiasi 4 dari 5 bintang.

"Aku mulai merasa kesepian, lalu mengingatkan diriku sendiri bahwa banyak hal yang lebih buruk daripada sekadar sendirian." (H.92)

"Hal yang paling membuat kita ingin menangis adalah ketika ada orang begitu manis terhadap kita." (H.281)

"Peristiwa yang begitu nyata dan menyedihkan bagi kita, bisa menjadi hiburan bagi orang lain. Itu salah satu cara mudah membuat kita tampil menarik, tapi juga murahan." (H.356)

Meta morfillah

As much as I was interested in reading about Eastern Africa, I can't say I was fully into this book. It gets a little slow by the end. And of course, it was hard for me to read about the unsolvable global problems that we still face in xxi century. but I did connect with hopelessness that I experienced being in east africa myself.

A very pleasurable read.

Bridget Jones light but a good read with some serious points being made underneath the satire.

n  n
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CAUSE CELEB is kind of like if someone thought, I want another CATCH-22, but I want it to be about refugee camps instead of war, and also, make it chick-lit. And to that effect, it's actually a pretty decent book. In some ways, it actually ages better than BRIDGET JONES because of the author's prescience about celebrity endorsements and influencer culture. She brutally satirizes virtue-signaling and the rather callous way that people view impoverished countries (if I don't personally see the starving children on my TV set, then suffering doesn't exist to me, etc.) and people's need to be recognized for giving.



There are a couple things that date this book-- an off-the-cuff insult about lesbians and a reference to President Reagan and Michael Jackson-- but for the most part, everything the author says in this book could probably still hold true today. How sad is that?



P.S. Speaking of sad, the way I welled up when the heroine saw all those starving people huddled by the mountain was just-- brutal.



3 stars

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