Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel Paperback – April 2, 2013

I loved this book. It engaged me throughout and I hated to put it down. It is a comedy of manners, a parody of political correctness, a satire of the computer world of Microsoft and a laugh-out-loud look at Seattle. It is a wonder of a book and I can't say enough positive things about it.It is about Bernadette Branch, a Macarther Fellow in the past, her husband Elgie, a Microsoft Guru, and their daughter Bee, fifteen going on forty. Bernadette won her award for architecture but now her family lives in a former children's prison that is falling apart. Blackberry brambles are growing through the floor, there are rooms closed off because the floors are all mud and it is a general third world residence. The Branches, by the way, are quite rich so this is a true paradox. At one time Bernadette hoped to fix the place up but her plans never came to fruition.Bee goes to Galer School, a private school, and Bernadette hates the mothers of the children there. She calls them 'gnats'. She and Audrey, the mother of a psychopathic son, are especially at war. When one of Bernadette and Audrey's conflicts ends up in a tragedy worse than they had anticipated, everything escalates.Bee has been getting straight A's and she was told she could have anything she wanted if she finished middle school with perfect grades. She wants a trip to Antarctica and so the family plans this. Additionally, she has been accepted to Choate, an elite boarding school in the northeast.Bernadette had a terrible experience with her architecture in L.A. which caused the family to move to Seattle. Since then she has not done anything professional. She avoids people and, most of the time, lives in her airstream trailer which is on their property. Elgie is hardly ever home. He is a guru at Microsoft and a legend in the computer world,Bernadette is different but is she crazy? Bee doesn't think so. Her mother is her best friend. The gnats hate her and think she has a screw loose. You will have to read this book yourself to decide. It is an amazing feat of writing, composed of narrative, emails, faxes, and documents. All of these are composed in a way that tell the story of what leads to Bernadette's disappearance.This is one of the best books I've read this year and a unique and wonderful reading experience. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Book Review - Where'd You Go BernadetteBy Maria SempleBook Review - Where'd You Go BernadetteBy Maria SempleWhere'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.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.

Great book, new, perfect condition.

Mère au foyer obsessionnelle entretenant des rapports acides avec son voisinage...On se demande bien ce que l'héroïne nous réserve... alors qu'on semble au plus près de ses pensées !

I loved it! Bernadette is witty and eccentric and absolutely fabulous! And I loved the part on the South Pole.

The Bernadette character is so relatable, and all of the characters brings a new kind of pace to the story. Thoroughly enjoyed it beyond expectations. Easy to read and didn't feel drabby - the plot unravelling was well timed

Eu estou apaixonada por esse livro, me identifiquei muito com a bernadette fox, e estou muito ansiosa pro filme que vai ter a cate blanchett