‘Olivia’ is equal parts adventure, romance and espionage, with a splash of comedy

By Maria Kinsley
editor in chief

The bestselling author of Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding, brings another fetching British female journalist to life in her 2004 novel, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination.

Olivia, a freelance journalist, has difficulty viewing the world in a strictly analytical, realistic light.  Her creative juices tend to take ordinary occurrences and spin them wildly out of proportion.  So when truly fantastic circumstances actually begin to occur, one can only wonder at the leaps of fancy this over-imaginative writer comes up with in this spy-genre spoof.

In her reporting career, Olivia’s imagination is both an admired skill and a feared adversary.  Her unusual way of looking at people and events add color and life to her stories, but editors are wary her dreamer’s eye will inadvertently lead to stretching the truth.

The reader meets Olivia in London, where she resides.  Olivia never stays in one spot for long, however, and she is almost immediately on her way to South Beach, Miami to cover the launch of a new face cream.  Tired of covering fluffy stories, Olivia gets her editor to promise she can also cover a “proper news story” if she can find one.

By the time Olivia has attended one party in Miami, she is convinced she has spotted a terrorist among the guests.  In fact, Olivia believes she has discovered none other than Osama bin Laden living it up at a ritzy hotel pretending to be a film director.  I am revealing this aspect of the plot because this is where I almost threw the book down in disgust – a mere 17 pages in. 

Fortunately, I kept going, because it does get better.  It does not get less ridiculous, but it certainly gets interesting. 

Essentially, this novel is what it looks like: The cover features a woman in snorkel gear swimming in a martini glass.  This novel is not realistic or overly intelligent, but it is humorous, light-hearted fun.  It is rather like the style of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, but less technical.

Somewhere amidst her delusional conspiracy theories, Olivia falls across a “proper news story,” which sends her on a fantastic journey across the globe and leads to dealings with the CIA, FBI and MI6, as well as various dashing strangers, who provide romantic entanglements and other dangerous surprises. 

Though at times Olivia’s overactive imagination shifts a bit too far from charming toward obnoxious, she makes up for her annoying qualities via thrilling chases aboard speedboats, rendezvous on yachts, massive explosions and amusing spy gear, including a deadly underwire bra.

The best part of the journey is Olivia’s “Rules for Living,” a list of how to best live life.  These rules include rule No. 16: “If you start regretting something and thinking ‘I should have done …’ always add, ‘but then I might have been run over by a lorry or blown up by a Japanese-manned torpedo.’”

At 305 pages full of well-spaced text, Olivia Joules is a pleasant read on the beach or in bed.  Helen Fielding’s other novels include Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, both of which were made into feature films, and her first novel, Cause Celeb.  All her books are worth a read, but the best of the lot by far in terms of brilliant humor is Bridget Jones’s Diary.