Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

by Maria Semple

A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times).

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is her best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette vanishes. It all began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle -- and people in general -- has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, and secret correspondence -- creating a compulsively readable and surprisingly touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

Reviewed by layawaydragon on

2 of 5 stars

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After a recent win with reading a book again, I borrowed this from the library. Given it's told in emails and documents, I knew audiobook wouldn't work for me.

I finished it. I mostly liked it. I didn't find it as funny as everyone keeps saying it is. Nor insightful. Maybe it didn't age well?

The victimization group really bugged me. It seems to work for a moment and then ridiculousness struck again. It just...rude and unfunny.

The ending came like all is well again, but hardly! There's now a baby in the mix! The aftermath! And the legalities of going missing and the media and the true crime journalists and fans and...it's just bullshit!

If these people were poor or non-white, they'd be trashy and gross instead of funny and insightful. Like Bridget Jones's Baby, FFS.

I haven't seen this movie and I was initally interested to see how they'd make it work with the format. Then I finished the book. In a rare case, I'd be willing to see movie Bernadette if they gave a fulfilling ending. Doesn't seem like the case from what I've found so, nevermind.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 8 December, 2020: Finished reading
  • 8 December, 2020: Reviewed