Book Review: "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" by Maria Semple

Where'd You Go, Bernadette 

by Maria Semple

From the book: When Fifteen-year-old Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, her fiercely intelligent but agoraphobic mother, Bernadette, throws herself into preparations for the trip. Worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Bernadette is on the brink of a meltdown. As disaster follows disaster, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces. Which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together emails, invoices, and school memos to reveal the secret past that Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go, Bernadette is an ingeniously entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are, and the power of a daughter's love for the imperfect mother. 

This one from Goodreads is much better: Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

My Review: I have to say, based on the synopsis from the back of the book (see first post), I thought this was going to be some silly chic lit. I didn't read the Goodreads overview until after I finished but I definitely prefer it in recommending the book to someone. Also, I'd like to make mention that I've been hesitant to move this to the top of my WTR list because the cover looked like chic lit. My fellow book club-er, Tamsen, posted the same thing in her review!

I loved this book. I'm planning a trip to Seattle, so the city references were exciting. Including a hotel I'm looking at in the Queen Ann area, where the story takes place. Bainbridge Island, and a few other places I'm anticipating seeing next month. Even more exciting is something I discovered about the author after I finished. Semple, before turning to fiction, wrote for Mad About You, Ellen, and Arrested Development. That says a lot about the quirkiness of the novel to me. It's delightfully modern with a twist of dark irony. The story is mostly told from Bee as the narrator and also told through emails, letters, and faxes. This switch in how you receive the story tends to be a fan favorite, of mine especially. 

I immediately fell in love with the spastastic Bernadette. From her socially inept approach to motherhood and being an wife to her radical outbursts when confronted by the "gnats." I had to laugh and appreciate all of her bizarreness. My favorite scene is Bernadette and Bee waiting in line for the ferry to Bainbridge Island. They have a second home there, husband Elgin is away on business, and they just had an unexpected day in downtown Seattle. A stop by Pike Place Market and some other excursions and then the duo is headed to Bainbridge where they will be met by Bee's friend Kennedy. Until the weather stalls the ferry. They're sitting in the car. Here are some excerpts: 

Bee just read a book about the Beatles and pops in a copy of Abby Road that she burned that morning...

Of course, the first song is "Come Together." It starts with that great weird "shoomp" and the bass part. And when John started singing "Here come old flattop...," what happened, but Mom knew every single word of the song! Not just every word, but every cadence. She knew every "all right!" and "aww!" and "yeaaaah." And it kept going, song after song. When "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" started, Mom said, "Yuck, I always thought this was totally sophomoric."

Stunned, Bee wants to know how her mom knows all the words...

When "Here Comes the Sun" started, what happened? No, the sun didn't come out, but Mom opened up like the sun breaking through the clouds. You know how in the first few notes of that song, there's something about George's guitar that's just so hopeful? It was like when Mom sang, she was full of hope, too. She even got the irregular clapping right during the guitar solo.

I'm a Beatles fanatic. Enough said.

Other parts of the book that completely grasped my inner nerd were the talks about Elgin's TED talk. I'm a TED tv junkie of sorts, I was thrilled at the references. I work in design and construction. All of the details about Bernadette's architecture were equally thrilling. At one point Bernadette is telling a recap of a conversation she had with an "outdoorsy Dad," and he's trying to explain what he does with Microsoft Messenger. He's naming off Microsoft tools like Bing, Hotmail, MSN, and Windows Live and all Bernadette knows is Google and she has a Mac! If you can't find humor in that irony, then I just don't know.

Elgin is explaining that the brain is a discounting mechanism to Bee. He uses some great metaphors to help her understand, including my favorite:

Let's say you get a crack in your windshield and you're really upset. Oh no, my windshield, it's ruined, I can hardly see out of it, this is a tragedy! But you don't have enough money to fix it, so you drive with it. In a month, someone asks you what happened to your windshield, and you say, What do you mean? Because your brain has discounted it.

The last truck I bought, my windshield was cracked about 2 months after purchase. Yes, i was devastated. Then, I rode with that cracked windshield for 2 more years!

If you know anything about my personal life, you know my distaste for Michael Vick. Bernadette is explaining to Bee the different types of people in the South Pole. I almost choked when I read this:

...you're either an Amundsen guy, a Shackleton guy, or a Scott guy. Amundsen was the first to reach the Pole, but he did it by feeding dogs to dogs, which makes Amundsen the Michael Vick of polar explorers: you can like him, but keep it to yourself, or  you'll end up getting into arguments with a bunch of fanatics.

My Recommendation:  Please read this book. Take it to the beach. I read the majority of the story there today in just a few hours. Read it at  home or on a plane to Seattle to vacation. Whatever, it's worth it. Such a snarky, truth-be-told book about an agoraphobic and Seattle. It's hilarious. It's entertaining. The author, Semple, is funny and brilliant.

Find more on Goodreads

And...check out the story behind Bernadette Fox from the author's site, HERE