by Maria Semple
Where'd You Go,
Bernadette has been extensively reviewed by dozens of book critics for
newspapers and magazines, as well as almost 1200 readers and others on Amazon. In characterizing the book, reviewers and critics
have described it as, "utterly delightful, inventive, quirky, fresh, smart,
intelligent, zany, witty, comic satire, and crazy." My favorite descriptions include adverbs such
as divinely, achingly, outrageously, scathingly, charmingly, and wickedly
FUNNY. Yes, the author, Maria Semple, is
a creative and gifted writer, but I didn't find this book all that funny. I know, I'm not in the same age group as most
of you (them) and that probably has something to do with it.
This book uses emails, letters, faxes, bills, reports,
and almost any form of written information and/or communication to develop the
plot and move the story forward. I
admit, I read the first section rather casually. Later, when I picked up my Kindle to
continue, I had to read the whole section again as I was unable to place all
the characters.
The problem with this style of narrative is that the
emails, letters, etc. have the same voice (the author's) despite (in the book) being
written by different characters. It's
hard for an author to write letters to a daughter from her mother or emails
between friends and be able to define their personalities in a different
narrative voice. All sound like the same
person. And, as I read most of the
lengthy correspondence, it struck me as "stream of consciousness writing"―meaning
anything that comes to mind (I call it ranting and raving about unconnected
things). Semple obviously has a talent for
writing this way with wit and sarcasm, although stream of consciousness can get
tedious.
The main characters are Bernadette and Elgin Branch and
their 14-15 year old daughter, Bee―named Balakrishna at birth by her
mother. The setting is Seattle where
Microsoft rules. Despite the community
of geniuses and money, Bernadette
believes it is a city of nerds and other
mostly stupid and small-minded people.
Twenty years ago Bernadette won the MacArthur genius
award for architecture when she designed and built a house in Los Angeles called
the Twenty-Mile House using only the materials that could be found no more than
twenty miles from the building site.
After it was completed and sold she was traumatized by what happened to
it.
Now, she hates living in Seattle and has pretty much withdrawn
from life. Luckily she hires a person in
India, Manjula Kapoor, for 75 cents an hour, to take care of everything for her
via email. However, a virtual person is
not always what they seem. Bernadette's behavior gets so strange that either she has Asberger's
syndrome (my diagnosis) or is believed to be mentally unstable.
Elgin is also extremely gifted and engrossed in his work
as a VP for Microsoft. While living in
Los Angeles, his computer animation company was bought by Microsoft and they
moved to Seattle. Elgin's company is the
highest priority at Microsoft and he is "team leader" to 250
employees working on a project called Samantha 2. His new admin, Soo-Lin Lee-Segal, is a single, divorced mother with two children
in the same school as Bee. She participates
in a Victims Against Victimhood group that she writes about in her emails.
Bee was born with a heart defect that required
several years of treatment and many
operations when she was a baby. Bernadette stayed with her at the hospital
during all that time. Now, Bee is an eighth grader at the private Galer
Street School where she is an all A student.
She also scores high in "grit and poise" according to school
tests. She is smart, fun, and understanding of all her mother's quirks
and antics. When her mother disappears, Bee
is convinced Bernadette will be found as she knows her mother would not
permanently leave her.
Other correspondents in the story include Audrey Griffin,
a close neighbor, and the mother of a
boy in Bee's class at Galer. Audrey and Soo-Lin (Elgin's admin) are friends.
Their emails and other actions involve events
that affect the whole Branch family.
The trip to Antarctica is the most interesting and also
painful part of the story. Bee chose the
trip because they were studying it in school.
It was her reward for getting all A's.
The descriptions of the water, the icebergs, the land, the cold weather,
the whales, seals and penguins are great.
It is the trip that concludes the story, but the ending is unknown. Why do current authors leave their readers
with so many unanswered questions? I
guess It's like writing a book review; they don't want to reveal too much
information, or maybe they just don't know.
