Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years

I finally got around to reading Adrian Mole and found that I shouldn't have been so highbrowed as to put off reading it in the past. Some big things happen in the years this diary covers; Adrian becomes a star of sorts as a celebrity chef, inherits a pile before (spoiler alert) losing it. At the

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end though, he comes out a hero, and that's the most any of us could hope for.

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Not nearly as good as the first Adrian Mole book, but still amusing to encounter him as an adult. He grew up to be exactly what I'd assumed he would be.

Disappointing. The last book showed Adrian and JoJo getting together. Now the relationship is over and we only have glimpses of Adrian’s failure as a husband. He is as thick as ever but it’s less endearing as an adult. The diary is less of a diary too, more of a narrative tale. Just how could a

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person remember a conversation in such intricate detail? It takes away from the filtered effect of a real diary. And that detracts from the hilarious quality of the first one, which made me howl with laughter in spots. There are no spots in this one (to be popped or otherwise). Oh well. AT least I know what happened to Adrian.

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I was disappointed with this book as it did little to rekindle the feeling I had while reading the secret diary when it was published.

The book is semi-structured and it definitely doesn't fall into the diary category though it is time lined.

Some small pieces of humour but they were all too few

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amongst the many boring space filling passages.

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At the age of 30 1/4, Adrian is an offal chef on the verge of breaking into television, his wife has left him and their three-year-old son and returned to Nigeria, and a rough-looking boy appears to be stalking him. Pandora is a rising star of New Labour, known by the tabloids as "the people's

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Pan". Adrian's sister Rosie is now an obnoxious teenager, and the older generation of Moles and Braithwaites are still behaving badly.

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I really wish more nice things would happen to Adrian Mole. I think he deserves it. It's as if Sue Townsend lies awake at night thinking of new ways to make Adrian miserable. I suppose if he were happy, it wouldn't make much of a book, but I'm quite tired of the 'wingeing.'

If you don't appreciate dry, British humor then you won't appreciate this book. For those who do, however, Adrian Mole is a fun read that you'll smirk your way through.

I encountered the first Adrian Mole book when I was in high school - not much older than Adrian at the time. I just recently picked up The Cappuccino Years, remembering how much I enjoyed the first book.

Sadly, Adrian did not improve with age. The first diary was of a fairly self-centered, neurotic

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kid, who progressed to become someone with a bit of a future, and whom you probably wouldn't mind meeting.

The Cappuccino years follows almost exactly the same story arc. Adrian is insufferable, clueless, gormless, and self-centered. Eventually he demonstrates that he isn't a total waste of Oxygen. Unfortunately the sort of person that I could completely identify with as a teenager, and can appreciate looking back is not the sort of person I can identify with or enjoy as an adult.

There certainly seems to be a lot more references to contemporary (late 90's) British culture, which might make the book more entertaining for those more familiar with it than I am.

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Not as funny as the beginning books but still a good read.

Was ok. Not as good as the others though.

kid with promise turns into adult single parent with no home, no spouse, no job, no sex buddy, no money, parents trying to have their own lives.
very funny. adrian has no idea about much. irritATING KID SAYS DAD AT THE END OF EACH STATEMENT. this is the first i read. will try to read others in

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order. i'm sorry this is the last one.

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The beginning read quite slowly, because a lot of background info is needed about 90's UK politics and its personae.
It also turned me off at first, because there's such a huge gap between this one and the preceding vol.
Anyhow, later on you cannot help but be mesmerized by the Mole clan as usual :D

This is another brilliant Adrian Mole diary reflecting the times we live in. Adrian is now 30 ¼ and is working as the Head Chef at Hoi Polloi, which has a “Traditional English, No Choice Menu”. A typical menu is “Heinz Tomato Soup (with white bread floaters), Grey lamb chops, Boiled cabbage

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avec Dan Quayle potatoes, Dark brown onion gravy, Spotted Dick à la Clinton, Bird’s custard, Cheddar cheese, Nescafé, After Eight mint. Two types of wine, white and red.” He is still in love with Pandora, who is now a prominent M.P., often in the news.

Adrian has a three-year-old son called William by a Nigerian woman who has moved back to Nigeria leaving the boy with him. Later, after Adrian undergoes a DNA test, it turns out he is also the father of 12-year-old Glenn. The mother, Sharon, with whom Adrian once had a short affair, writes painfully bad English, and Glenn is practically illiterate. Adrian senses that the boy doesn’t have “a single strand of intellectual DNA in his body”.

Adrian’s mother, Pauline, gets engaged to Ivan Braithwaite, Pandora’s father, while his father, George, gets together with Tania, Pandora’s mother.

Adrian gets a TV programme called “Offaly Good!” In the first episode he makes sheep’s head broth. (I’m glad I didn’t have to watch the programme.) A group of Oxford undergraduates gives it the thumbs up – they found it great comedy. But the Times reviewer does not agree: “’Offaly good!’ is offally bad.”

Adrian has a contract to write a book of the same name, but can’t even get started. However, Mum comes to the rescue.

William is obsessed with Teletubbies and Jeremy Clarkson. Adrian is addicted to Opal Fruits and obsessed with his rapidly balding head.

In short, this as another enjoyable parody of British life, and I found it to be one of the best of the Adrian diaries

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Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years could be seen as a cautionary tale for men in their 30s: do not get too dependent on mama. Adrian, at this stage in his life, is divorced, lusting after a former flame while being the father (a decent one, I might add) to two boys, and yes, still living with

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mother. As he tells his journal, he is frequently constipated and suffers from bad breath and ill penis health.
This was a silly read. I almost gave up on it a few times, especially when it became over the top ridiculous. Case in point, Townsend seemed to be poking fun at the Food Network with the creation of "Ping with Singh," a cooking show aimed at microwave users. The show becomes popular enough to create a stage adaptation to satisfy the masses. Adrian's own show "Offally Good" produces a book deal (which his mother ultimately ends up ghost writing, go figure).
The best parts were the current events of the times: Tony Blair's election, Lady Di's love affair with Dodi and Bill Clinton's Monica scandal. The latter got a chuckle out of me.

The one line I laughed at, "'Your money, Mr Mole, is an abstraction wafting in the air between financial institutions, at the mercy of inflation and interest rates, dependent on the health of the global economy'" (p 151). That, sadly, is banking in a nutshell.

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A few years on, Adrian is much more grown up as he finds himself implausibly turned (briefly) into a cable TV chef and has to take on the responsibilities of fatherhood, against the background of the rise of New Labour, with Pandora sitting at the right hand of the Tony. It's fun to see a walk-on

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appearance from the upstart diarist Bridget Jones at one point — Adrian does a few entries in her style, but soon gets bored with it.

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