Reading this you start to cherish all those self-published authors

Grappig en geeft een echt Brits sarcastische blik op live aid en co. Ze schrijft heel scherp en goed, maar naar het einde toe werd het me te langdradig.

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.

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!

2.5. It took awhile to like the heroine. She just came off as very pretentious in the beginning as did the people in her London circle. It did get better and I did enjoy it more, but I don’t need to read it again.

bit quick of a wrap up but quite entertaining

It's so boring, I can't bring myself to finish.

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.

I needed something frothy after a series of super downer books, so some of my 2-star rating stems from feeling a bit baited and switched by Ms. Fielding. I wanted Bridget Jones-esque silliness, and instead I got an African refugee camp with locusts sending a devastating famine. Everything felt pretty two-dimensional, especially the main character, who we're told is a bang up aid worker/leader, but seems fairly devoid of managerial chops. And the attempt at satire when London glitz and glamor meets developing world was... sigh.

Ricos y famosos en Nambula es, además de una novela inteligente y muy divertida, un retrato sarcástico e irreverente de las relaciones entre Occidente y el Tercer Mundo, una seria burla a la cómoda solidaridad con la que los miembros de la beautiful people limpian su mala conciencia.

Ricos y famosos en Nambula" de Helen Fielding.

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.

Really funny. Also an interesting time capsule. Some elements regarding humanitarian aid and celebrities still apply today but also worthwhile to read and see how some things have evolved too. It’s definitely a moment in time. She nailed the crazymaking behaviour of a narcissist (Oliver). It gets pretty ridiculous by the end but hey it is a satire so that’s alright. The last part felt rushed though in comparison to the well paced nature of the majority of the book. Made you feel Fielding’s editor must have been pressuring her to finish fast.