Semple, Maria. Where'd You Go, Bernadette. New York: Little, Brown. 2012. Print
First Sentences:
The first annoying thing is when I ask Dad what he thinks happened to Mom, he always says, "What's most important is for you to understand it's not your fault."
You'll notice that wasn't even the question. When I press him, he says the second annoying thing, "The truth is complicated. There's no way one person can ever know everything about another person."
Description:
It is difficult to describe this book. Satiric? Quirky? Fresh? Screwball? Surprising? One word works for me: "delightful," and in every sense.
The first annoying thing is when I ask Dad what he thinks happened to Mom, he always says, "What's most important is for you to understand it's not your fault."
You'll notice that wasn't even the question. When I press him, he says the second annoying thing, "The truth is complicated. There's no way one person can ever know everything about another person."
Description:
It is difficult to describe this book. Satiric? Quirky? Fresh? Screwball? Surprising? One word works for me: "delightful," and in every sense.
In Where'd You Go, Bernadette, author Maria Semple, a former writer for television shows "Arrested Development", "Mad About You," and "Ellen," again shows her skills at deftly portraying quirky characters in their seemingly normal but off-beat lives and relationships.
The story focuses on Bee Branch, the brilliant eighth grade daughter of Elgie and Bernadette, who all live in Seattle. After achieving perfect scores (again) on her report card, Bee asks her parents to fulfill their promise to give her anything she wants if she can achieve this, (a promise made to ward off her earlier pleads for a pony). She chooses a trip to Antarctica for the entire family. Then the fun starts.
Bernadette, the mother, is aghast at this proposal. She is virtually a recluse, avoiding both the city of Seattle and its idiotic inhabitants. She rarely leaves her home, a sprawling, collapsing former Catholic school for wayward girls, delegating all mundane tasks and arrangements to Manjula, an online service professional in India for $.75 an hour.
Elgie, the father, is a highly-placed engineer at Microsoft, developing robots that act on mental commands, and vending machines with face recognition to provide any customer with the specific snack, toy, or drink uniquely suited to him.
Eventually the Antarctica trip is scheduled, but one small problem arises: Bernadette, the mother, has disappeared just days before the trip is to begin.
While this all sounds like a lightweight look at a bunch of fluffy, zany people, that is far from the truth. Well, not too far, but far enough. Through correspondence and other letters, layer after layer of these people is uncovered to reveal their past lives, their relationships, and their dreams. Characters begin to grow and seem much more understandable, sympathetic, and certainly less zany through their letters, diary entries, emails, and other jottings.
The situations and all the other minor characters are wonderful, from pushy neighbors to concerned doctors trying to institutionalize Bernadette, to people from the past wanting to know why Bernadette has forsaken her international fame to isolate herself in Seattle. Throw in some penguins, Antarctica, TED talks, and a neighborhood mudslide and you have all the elements of a modern screwball comedy.
I love epistolic novels where everything is revealed via printed documents rather than traditional dialog and descriptions. Of course, Bernadette had me hooked from the opening pages that start with Bee's latest report card and glowing note from her teacher about her future.
To wrap this up, I'll leave you with these wise words from a review by Holley Simmons for the Washington Post Express:
Well said.
The story focuses on Bee Branch, the brilliant eighth grade daughter of Elgie and Bernadette, who all live in Seattle. After achieving perfect scores (again) on her report card, Bee asks her parents to fulfill their promise to give her anything she wants if she can achieve this, (a promise made to ward off her earlier pleads for a pony). She chooses a trip to Antarctica for the entire family. Then the fun starts.
Bernadette, the mother, is aghast at this proposal. She is virtually a recluse, avoiding both the city of Seattle and its idiotic inhabitants. She rarely leaves her home, a sprawling, collapsing former Catholic school for wayward girls, delegating all mundane tasks and arrangements to Manjula, an online service professional in India for $.75 an hour.
Elgie, the father, is a highly-placed engineer at Microsoft, developing robots that act on mental commands, and vending machines with face recognition to provide any customer with the specific snack, toy, or drink uniquely suited to him.
Eventually the Antarctica trip is scheduled, but one small problem arises: Bernadette, the mother, has disappeared just days before the trip is to begin.
While this all sounds like a lightweight look at a bunch of fluffy, zany people, that is far from the truth. Well, not too far, but far enough. Through correspondence and other letters, layer after layer of these people is uncovered to reveal their past lives, their relationships, and their dreams. Characters begin to grow and seem much more understandable, sympathetic, and certainly less zany through their letters, diary entries, emails, and other jottings.
The situations and all the other minor characters are wonderful, from pushy neighbors to concerned doctors trying to institutionalize Bernadette, to people from the past wanting to know why Bernadette has forsaken her international fame to isolate herself in Seattle. Throw in some penguins, Antarctica, TED talks, and a neighborhood mudslide and you have all the elements of a modern screwball comedy.
I love epistolic novels where everything is revealed via printed documents rather than traditional dialog and descriptions. Of course, Bernadette had me hooked from the opening pages that start with Bee's latest report card and glowing note from her teacher about her future.
To wrap this up, I'll leave you with these wise words from a review by Holley Simmons for the Washington Post Express:
If you read only one book this summer about an agoraphobic mother and her broken promise to take her daughter Bee on a trip to Antarctica, make it this one.
Well said.
Happy reading.
Fred
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Torday, Paul. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Another epistolic novel (told with letters, documents, diaries, etc.), this one about bringing the sport of fly fishing to the Yemen desert. An absurd proposal is taken seriously by a Sheik, an engineer, and the Sheik's beautiful land agent. Loads of fun and extremely cleverly-written
