Book Review - Where'd You Go Bernadette

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.