Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. 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. It all began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. 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. (Aug.'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).īernadette Fox is notorious.

As expected from a writer who has written episodes of Arrested Development, the nuances of mundane interactions are brilliantly captured, and the overarching mystery deepens with each page, until the thoroughly satisfying dénouement. How will she survive three weeks on a boat with other live human beings? Maybe she won’t a day before the trip, Bernadette disappears, and Bee gathers her mother’s invoices, e-mail correspondence, and emergency room bills in the hopes of finding clues as to where she went.The result is a compelling composite of a woman’s life-and the way she’s viewed by the many people who share it. (who makes “$0.75 USD/hr.”) for tasks as simple as making dinner reservations.

Bernadette’s social anxiety has become so overwhelming that she’s employed a personal assistant from Delhi Virtual Assistants Intl. Her parents acquiesce, but not without trepidation. Bee has a simple request: a family cruise to Antarctica as a reward for her good grades. Eighth-grader Bee is the daughter of Microsoft genius Elgin Branch and Bernadette Fox, a once-famous architect who has become a recluse in her Seattle home. In her second novel (after This One Is Mine), Semple pieces together a modern-day comic caper full of heart and ingenuity.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple