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Mr. Commitment has been called the male Bridget Jones’s Diary. It’s the story of Benjamin Duffy, an aspiring British stand-up comic and part-time temp worker—who, like Bridget, suffers from relationship problems. As the novel opens, Duffy’s girlfriend of four years, Mel, proposes. What follows is three hundred pages of indecision for Duffy—a debilitating fear of commitment and an even stronger fear of losing Mel. With the help of his bachelor-for-life flatmate Dan (who suddenly realizes that he gave up the one woman he really loved), his older sister, Vernie, and his brother-in-law, Charlie, Duffy constantly flip-flops between reluctantly committing and wanting to run for his life.
With a heart full of terror, Duffy realizes that Mel will no longer continue to let him sit on the fence. He has to choose between being a married man and being free, single, and alone.
I enjoyed Mr. Commitment—and not just because the language and the setting reminded me of my recent trip to England. I appreciated the male perspective—though I often wondered how realistic it was. Do men, I wondered, really—even if only on rare occasions—discuss their true feelings with one another? I was pretty sure they just talked about football—but maybe men are different in London.
Whether or not it’s really all that truthful, I enjoyed pretending it was. That’s what fiction is all about, right?
All in all, Mr. Commitment is a good casual read. It’ll make you smile—and sometimes it’ll even make you laugh out loud. And maybe—just maybe—in the end, it’ll make you want to openly discuss your feelings.
But don’t count on it.
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