“Where’d You Go, Bernadette” by Maria Semple
A selection for the 2013 Tournament of Books, Where’d You Go, Bernadette (no question mark, which I find strange) by Maria Semple had been on my radar for a while, recommended in reviews and by friends. Semple’s background includes a stint as writer on Arrested Development, and the book is similar in its same snarky, frantic style. It does, though, have a beating heart that’s perhaps more akin to something from Modern Family.
The novel is made up of a hodgepodge of letters, reports, receipts and articles, tied together with the memories of Bee Branch, an 8th grader at a private school in Seattle. Bee’s mother is the Bernadette of the title, who disappears two days before Christmas, and the novel starts in the month leading up to it. Bee’s father in an executive at Microsoft, and the family is planning a trip to Antarctica, a present for Bee for her all-A grades.
Though the story is often about Bee’s search for Bernadette, it’s the woman herself who is the bright, shining star of the novel. Bernadette is a bundle of crazy, having had a series of disappointments and difficulties both personally and professionally. But watching her navigate her fear of the impending trip abroad and the people around her is a blast. She’s smart, complicated and interesting, just like the book, which I devoured in two days. Fair disclosure: I was also avoiding a deadline and cleaning the house, but still, this book was wildly engaging and entertaining. The ending was abrupt, so I wished for a bit more closure, but like Bee in the book, I’ll take what I can get when a book is this flat-out fun to read.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:09 pm
Complete agreement.
January 25th, 2013 at 8:27 am
I loved Bernadette, too. One of my favorite reads of 2012. Can’t wait to see what Semple delivers next.
January 25th, 2013 at 11:28 am
It was a very good, laugh out loud read for me. What I loved though, was the part near the end where someone cuts through the bs and simply tells Bernadette that no wonder everything’s a mess–she gave up the true part of herself when she left off architecture and creating, and all that energy has no where to go and is in turn destroying her “life” as it breaks free. Kind of like the Big Bang. But also a pretty powerful statement about being female in modern American society, and about being a smart/gifted woman in general.
Which brings up another fictional connection–the character of Elsbeth Tascioni from The Good Wife. She’s another character for whom the brilliance is that she is different, and when allowed to indulge her brilliance and apply it in the way she does best, excellence happens. In the most recent episode, she was hilariously schooled by Alicia on passing a psych eval to get out of jail, which of course is a lesson in becoming more like Alicia–more measured, more careful in her words, more hidden. And of course Elsbeth fails the psych eval. Reining in her mind and forcing it to work unnaturally ensures that.
January 26th, 2013 at 9:01 am
Kerry, my sister has been urging me for some time to watch The Good Wife, and now that she and I have finished watching Friday Night Lights, I think it’s the next series I’m going to catch up on, maybe when some of the current shows finish up, like 30 Rock.