Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fun, fabulous tale told by Bernadette's daughter Bee (short for Balakrishna) through the use of emails, notes and internal narration.  The story takes place in Seattle, where Bernadette, her husband Elgin and Bee live in a dilapidated former girls' school with blackberry brambles claiming the basement and ever-growing holes in the roof ushering the rain inside.  Elgin works at Microsoft, writing code for a robot designed to be controlled by thought.  When Bee earns perfect grades, she chooses a family trip to Antarctica for her prize, and Bernadette is determined not to let Bee down despite her fear of crowds and severe seasickness.

As indicated by the title, Bernadette disappears.  I don't want to give any more of the story line away, so you'll have to sit down and read it to see what happens.  It's highly entertaining, interesting and engrossing.  A light, different type of story.

I did notice two inconsistencies in the story line while reading;  I won't mention them here as they occur in the last third of the story.


View all my reviews