The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

Infobox Book |
name = The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole


image_caption =
author = Sue Townsend
publisher = Puffin Books
genre = Young adult novel
series = Adrian Mole series
country = United Kingdom
language = English
publisher = Methuen
release_date = 2 August 1984
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
page = 160 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-413-53130-9 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by = The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾
followed_by = The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole

"The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole", a novel by Sue Townsend, is the second book in the Adrian Mole series, following on from "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾". It focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage (supposed) intellectual. The novel is included in the omnibus "".

The book is written in a diary style and set in 1982 through to mid-1983. Notable events in this volume are the break up and later reconciliation of Adrian and Pandora, Adrian's attempt to run away from home and subsequent breakdown, the birth of his sister Rosie Mole, and Adrian's general worry about his O levels and nuclear war.

Plot summary

Adrian Mole is an outsider who feels the reason he can't quite fit in with "regular" society is that he is an intellectual. Evidence from his diary entries include a precocious interest in literature, in left-wing politics, a desire to have his own poetry show on the BBC, his dislike of Margaret Thatcher and his frequent critiques of his less-refined schoolmates and family.

Adrian's dysfunctional family, as in "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole", is one of the focal points of the book. While Adrian's entries are full of humour, sarcasm and irony, they still speak to a great deal of confusion and disillusionment with the dysfunctional relationships of his parents. Sometimes Adrian's diary entries show him to be naive; other times they are very candid; and other times they are full of self-pity. As an only child (at least as the book begins), Adrian has a tendency to look at all problems from a selfish point of view, yet he seems to have a real compassion for the members of his family. While most people might not have the same loquacity as young Adrian, and others might not have the same level of dysfunction in their families, these entries are recorded in such a way that it becomes easy to empathise with the young writer.

This book also builds on its predecessor by continuing the storyline of Adrian's growing frustration with his body. He constantly writes about the "spots" that mar his complexion, and he also has self-esteem issues about his height and muscular maturity.

While Adrian seems a bit self-centred in some aspects of life (and it is hard not to seem this way when writing a diary), he also is more compassionate than the average young man. He is the only friend and frequent caretaker of a nonagenarian, and also shows a great deal of concern and compassion for the misfortunes of his parents and respect for the authority of his grandmother.