Adrian’s Passion Sunday

Press, 28 January 1984, Page 16

Adrian’s Passion Sunday

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13%. By Sue Townsend. Methuen, 1983. 187 pp. $4.95 (paperback).

(Reviewed by

Naylor Hillary)

The New Year began badly for Adrian Mole: “I feel rotten today. It’s my mother’s fault for singing ‘My Way’ at two o’clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children’s home.” But he wasn’t. A year later he began his diary entries worrying about the bomb. He hoped it would not be dropped before he got his exam results. “I wouldn’t like to die an unqualified virgin.” In the year between, Adrian has time to worry about his dog, his spots, his mother’s lover, his own girlfriend (a 14-year-old feminist who crusades for red socks at school), and the way the 8.8. C. rejects his poetry. Nigel, his best friend, a spoilt brat with too much pocket-money, also causes problems. “Nigel is a punk at week-ends. His mother lets him be one providing he wears a string vest under his bondage T-shirt.” Adrian is an eager intellectual. “Feb. 18: Started reading ‘Animal Farm’ by

George Orwell. I think I might like to be a vet when I grow up.” On March 2: “Finished ‘Animal Farm.’ It is dead symbolic. I cried when Boxer was taken to the vet’s. From now on I shall treat pigs with the contempt they deserve. I am boycotting pork of all kinds.” Adrian’s erotic life is largely unfulfilled. “April 5: Looked at ‘Big and Bouncy’ magazine. It is Passion Sunday after all.” The diary covers the year of the marriage of Prince Charles. Adrian almost missed the show on television while making a cup of tea. “I was back in time to see that Kiwi woman singing. She has certainly got a good pair of lungs on her.” By December 31, Adrian can write: “A lot has happened. I have fallen in love. Been a one-parent child. Gone intellectual. And had two letters from the 8.8. C.” He might add: And given his readers a feast of delicious humour, even in the midst of his personal tragedies: “March 18: My mother and father are both seeing solicitors. I expect they are fighting over who gets custody of me. I will be a tug-of-love child and my picture will be in the newspapers. I hope my spots clear up before then.”