Farewell, Sue Townsend

When I first met Adrian Mole, I was twelve. I borrowed “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾” from a friend who had borrowed it from the British Council library. That was the first time I encountered another teenager's inner world, a glimpse into the painfully funny phases of adolescence that made me laugh at my own ordeals. Back when I was reading the first two books, what I could relate to was Adrian Mole's obsession with his multiple zits or his intense embarrassment at having parents, a feeling all teenagers are familiar with.
Unfortunately, the British Council library only had the first book of the series, so I had to source the other books intermittently from abroad. But looking back, it gave me time to re-read all the books, and discover the many layered subtleties of Sue Townsend's world. For Adrian Mole was not just a gangly boy getting on with his life. Through her pitifully lovable character, in her typically understated style, Townsend was really writing a commentary about British politics and society. Written between the lines of his constant longing for the love of his life, Pandora, is a reflection of a great class division. The teenage “troubled intellectual” sits in his room writing poetry, (“The tap drips and keeps me awake, tomorrow there will be a lake”), and through him Townsend retells her own working-class life story and paints the picture of that class' financial hardships under Margaret Thatcher's iron rule, and stresses the importance of community. The dysfunctional Mole family is the embodiment of that era, perpetually broke, perpetually puffing on cigarettes, and jobless.
Throughout the books, and throughout Mole's journey from adolescence to middle-age, Townsend's humane voice is unmistakable. Past his first job, marriage, and divorce, we meet Mole again in 2004 (Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction), this time with two sons and a growing disillusionment over the Labour party. Once again, it is Townsend taking out her disappointment with Britain's war with Iraq through Mole, just as she had done during the Falklands war. In this book we also see a reflection of her personal battles -- with diabetes and blindness. But all is not grim, for Adrian Mole is going through a series of disastrous relationships and still pining for his childhood love, Pandora Braithwaite, who is now an MP.
After all, as Townsend herself said, her books are really a way for her to cope with her life. In the last book of the series, “Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years”, Mole develops prostrate cancer. Though instead of gloom, Townsend finds dark humour in all of life's tragedies. The story of Adrian Mole's life is all about hope and persistence, from the repeated poetry submissions to BBC to the belief that one day Pandora will be his. And at this hour of Townsend's departing, we should cope with her loss the way she told us to do through her books -- by looking at life's funny, humane, and hope-filled side. And what better way of doing that than re-reading and finding ourselves in her legacy?