Synopsis
The book Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend is about a person called
Adrian Mole who writes down all his depressions, affairs, hopes and problems. In this book
Adrian Mole has grown-up and is 23 and 3/4. He lives in a box room in Pandora's house.
Adrian is trying very hard to sell a novel called "Lo! the flathills of my homeland." He keeps
getting lots of rejections from the BBC. Adrian lost his first love Pandora and she's now having
an affair with his boss. Adrian's boss works for a nature magazine and Adrian has a
paragraph about amphibians. But seeing there is hardly any staff he gets a lot of paperwork.
Adrian is very depressed that Pandora doesn't want to marry him. He starts to see a
psychiatrist, her name is Leonora and he falls in love with her. Adrian doesn't realise but a girl
called Bianca fancies him at the corner shop. He soon finds a new job at a restaurant called
Savages. Leonora isn't interested in him because she's already married and suggests they
stop their sessions together. But Bianca still fancies him a lot. Adrian and Bianca start having
an affair. He moves into her flat and they're both really happy. Soon though they split up
because Bianca goes off with another man so Adrian is left on his own. He begs Pandora to
let him back in her box room, reluctantly she agrees. Adrian is still working at the restaurant
Savages and there is now a new girl working Savages called Jo- Jo. Adrian decides to take a
holiday, which he thinks is an exotic holiday with hot sunny weather. It turns out to be a cold
rainy adventure holiday! The holiday is a diaster, but when Adrian gets back Jo- Jo was
waiting, and he drops his luggage and they embrace each other.
Purpose of Author
Honestly, in our opinion, this is the best book in the series. Sue Townsend is at her biting,
satirical best here, and because Adrian is older, we feel that what he goes through is more
relatable to most readers. Townsend paints a perfect picture of the 90s through our naive,
disenchanted hero-through his eyes, we get a hilarious, sometimes troubling account of how
angst y life was in the pre-millenium-the fear of AIDS, the introduction of political correctness,
the Gulf War, fall of the Berlin Wall, and etc so we can see what's happening at that time. The
stories are HILARIOUS!!! especially when Adrian goes on a "cruise" to Moscow and finds out
that he actually has to canoe through treacherous gales. Also his accounts with his stunning
shrink Leonara, meeting his extremely PC landlord's wife, Cassandra (who corrects him when
he calls someone fat, saying he's 'vetically challenged'), and his book "Lo-the FlatLands of the
Hills" which seems to lack "narrative thrust" (it does Adrian). Townsend purposely makes the
book with a lot of humor and avoiding from being too serious to make it a good reading
materials. Townsend brings us Mole's voice and inner anguish with her usual style and wit.
Mole is a victim of his own failings but we can't help but feel sympathy, who among us hasn't
dreamed of bigger and better things but been brought tumbling down to earth. However, what
marks the Wilderness Years out is that Mole hits the nadir, but then soars back to new heights
of genuine happiness. When his love for Bianca crumbles, now we feel his real loss and pain.
Townsend is brilliant, we laugh at Mole's self-pitying whinging, but trust , most of us will get
almost in tears when real suffering came along.
Recommendation
Overall an excellent read for all ages from teen to adult. The fact that is it written in diary
form makes it easy for reading and it is very clever how the story is told from the point of view
of Adrian himself but you can see things about his life that he cannot. So, as for the review
these books are great. The entire series make you just couldn't stop reading them all the way
to the end. The one thing we might suggest is to keep in mind that with most series of books
the first is always the best, which is probably the case here too, but if you like it and are a fan
of Adrian Mole, there is no reason why you wouldn't want to read the rest.
