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A review by phwoooarker
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
4.0
I asked the lovely people of Goodreads to recommend me a fun, light read and I got exactly what I wanted. This was an addictive and entertaining read that I whizzed through in a few days.
It tells the story of Bernadette Fox, a world-famous and extremely talented architect who, after some ‘nastiness’ in her past, has become a recluse in a collapsing Seattle mansion. Bernadette spends her time venting her spleen about the various annoyances of Seattle, from Canadians to the rain and, most importantly, the terrible mothers of Galer Street, the school that her 14-year-old daughter Bee attends. Her husband, a workaholic, becomes increasingly frustrated by her erratic behaviour. And then one day Bernadette disappears without a trace and Bee needs to piece together the story of what happened. She does this by compiling various emails and articles leading up to her mother’s disappearance, and the story is told via these disparate clippings.
I have to admit that when I first began reading this I just could not handle how nasty Bernadette was. She was utterly obnoxious and self absorbed. At around the 20% mark I was hoping that she’d gone to Antarctica and been dragged off by a leopard seal; she was so vile I didn’t care where the hell she’d gone or whether she’d be found. Part of my antipathy towards her was based on the horrendous way she spoke to Manjula her ‘assistant’ in India. However, I later realised that Manjula was a ‘virtual assistant’ and therefore Bernadette was talking to a robot, which vindicated her slightly (unless I’ve got that completely wrong? If so, Bernadette is an awful character and my previous comment about the leopard seal still stands). You are also given a better indication of what made her so angry and twisted and I think that this helps to humanise her. Whichever way you look at it though, Bernadette is a deeply flawed character and - aside from being a genius, eccentric and very brave - she wasn’t very sympathetic.
Throughout the book, Semple takes aim at some deserving targets: helicopter moms using their children’s education to create nonsense dramas; stupidly over-protective new-age schooling; and big tech companies. The writing is witty and filled with wry asides; however, it didn’t make me laugh like an idiot on the train like some books have; rather it made me occasionally give a knowing smile.
Despite the highly flawed central character and the far-fetched plot, this was massively entertaining and perfect if you’ve had a run of very serious books and need a bit of a mind holiday.
It tells the story of Bernadette Fox, a world-famous and extremely talented architect who, after some ‘nastiness’ in her past, has become a recluse in a collapsing Seattle mansion. Bernadette spends her time venting her spleen about the various annoyances of Seattle, from Canadians to the rain and, most importantly, the terrible mothers of Galer Street, the school that her 14-year-old daughter Bee attends. Her husband, a workaholic, becomes increasingly frustrated by her erratic behaviour. And then one day Bernadette disappears without a trace and Bee needs to piece together the story of what happened. She does this by compiling various emails and articles leading up to her mother’s disappearance, and the story is told via these disparate clippings.
I have to admit that when I first began reading this I just could not handle how nasty Bernadette was. She was utterly obnoxious and self absorbed. At around the 20% mark I was hoping that she’d gone to Antarctica and been dragged off by a leopard seal; she was so vile I didn’t care where the hell she’d gone or whether she’d be found. Part of my antipathy towards her was based on the horrendous way she spoke to Manjula her ‘assistant’ in India. However, I later realised that Manjula was a ‘virtual assistant’ and therefore Bernadette was talking to a robot, which vindicated her slightly (unless I’ve got that completely wrong? If so, Bernadette is an awful character and my previous comment about the leopard seal still stands). You are also given a better indication of what made her so angry and twisted and I think that this helps to humanise her. Whichever way you look at it though, Bernadette is a deeply flawed character and - aside from being a genius, eccentric and very brave - she wasn’t very sympathetic.
Throughout the book, Semple takes aim at some deserving targets: helicopter moms using their children’s education to create nonsense dramas; stupidly over-protective new-age schooling; and big tech companies. The writing is witty and filled with wry asides; however, it didn’t make me laugh like an idiot on the train like some books have; rather it made me occasionally give a knowing smile.
Despite the highly flawed central character and the far-fetched plot, this was massively entertaining and perfect if you’ve had a run of very serious books and need a bit of a mind holiday.