Where’d You Go, Bernadette
If you enjoyed this review, please consider purchasing this book from my Amazon Associates link (applies to Kindle purchases as well): https://amzn.to/44XHzQY. The commissions I receive from your purchase help pay for the costs of running this website. Thanks for your support!
Bernadette Fox is a bit of a nightmare. She’s privileged, haughty, selfish…but she’s also witty, fiercely protective of her loved ones, and full of surprises. So, she makes for an interesting main character, but she’d drive me bananas IRL. If anyone needs to take a chill pill, it’s her.
Once a (fictional) celebrated architect and recipient of the MacArthur Grant, she’s now a neurotic recluse. Her fall from grace ultimately leads to her ‘disappearance’. This book is narrated by Bernadette’s daughter, Bee, who presents a series of correspondences that help piece together the puzzle of events. This makes for innovative story-telling. We see email exchanges between peripheral characters, past incidents that collide with the present, official documents from various organizations (Bee’s school, the FBI, architectural permits), etc. Bee comes across as omniscient, gathering all of the bits of Bernadette’s life, but she’s still an unreliable narrator given the fact that her mom is AWOL.
This book is quirky AF and you definitely have to suspend disbelief. It has a convoluted ending that somehow fits given the wacky nature of the whole thing. It was a fun, quick read but it didn’t necessarily wow me. My favorite parts to read were the glimpses of Bee and Bernadette’s relationship. They had a mutual respect and Bee understood and admired her mom when no one else did. I can’t say that I share that sentiment; I think that Maria Semple, the author, attempted to drum up empathy for Bernadette but it was a half-assed attempt and I still found her insufferable. That’s fine— I don’t need to like the main character— but the plot itself and the haphazard presentation of it left me feeing that the book is average. Overall, Where’d You Go, Bernadette receives 3 out of 5 flames.
