If I turn out to be mentally deranged in adult life, it will be all my mother's fault.'Adrian Mole continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life in this second volume of his secret diary.
Review of 'The growing pains of Adrian Mole' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
As the protagonist gets more mature, so do the themes of the book. The humour is now not so much derived from Adrian's naïveté, but from the situation he lives in. Indeed, he is growing up (going on 16) and is much less self-centered: while in the first book, the parents' exasperation was understandable in part, this time they are on a journey of constant, childish self-exploration, and caught in their insecurities and weaknesses. At the same time, Adrian tries his best to help out wherever he can, and so the way he is treated is more aggravating to the reader.
Therefore, it becomes more clear than in the first book that the story is really about life in England in the early nineteen-eighties, and particularly working-class life. It is much less funny, and more grim, quite in tune with the developments of the time. That makes it even more …
As the protagonist gets more mature, so do the themes of the book. The humour is now not so much derived from Adrian's naïveté, but from the situation he lives in. Indeed, he is growing up (going on 16) and is much less self-centered: while in the first book, the parents' exasperation was understandable in part, this time they are on a journey of constant, childish self-exploration, and caught in their insecurities and weaknesses. At the same time, Adrian tries his best to help out wherever he can, and so the way he is treated is more aggravating to the reader.
Therefore, it becomes more clear than in the first book that the story is really about life in England in the early nineteen-eighties, and particularly working-class life. It is much less funny, and more grim, quite in tune with the developments of the time. That makes it even more essential, especially for people that have experienced this period.