Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

-

“Semple-y” Delightful

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple was one of those books that I had been meaning to read for a while now but never got around to it—until a friend loaned me her copy. I’m sure glad she did. As I dove right in, I felt this refreshing splash that sent revitalizing waves throughout my brain. It’s a totally unique and absolutely fun book.  It is about a teenage girl and her relationship with her parents, specifically her mother, Bernadette. Bernadette is an antisocial woman who has her family living in a deteriorating mansion on a hill in Seattle overlooking Elliot Bay.  She is incapable of handling even the smallest tasks and has a virtual assistant in India doing her every bidding for seventy-five cents an hour.  Her husband, Elgie, works at Microsoft and is rarely home.  In the middle of it all is Bee, a smart-as-a-whip girl who wants to go to Antarctica over the Christmas break.  This book is written in a semi-epistolary style with snap and sass. It is a fusion of emails, report cards, letters, faxes, invoices, notes, essays and various correspondences interspersed with Bee’s own narratives.  Through these communications we find out what causes an intelligent, creative, ambitious woman to go off the deep end. We learn Bernadette’s history and the incidents that profoundly affected her.

I have to say that I just love this book. It is absurdly funny and original and gets my “Oh My God, I Just Read the Cutest Book” award.  If you liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows or Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman, you’ll probably enjoy this one.  For me, “Bernadette” provoked the same giddy smiles with the humorous, clever writing and memorable characters. I recommend this book not just for individual frivolity, but also for book clubs, because I believe it has high potential for mass appeal.  It is a pure delight.

 One of my sisters read the book after I did. She said she didn't like it---she LOVED it! So that's three thumbs-up so far: friend, me, and sister. 

Do you think I woke up this morning and drank a big cup of stupid?
Maria Semple, Where’d You Go, Bernadette (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012), 146.
Seattle is the only city where you step in shit and you pray, Please God, let this be dog shit.
Maria Semple, Where’d You Go, Bernadette (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012), 128.

Happy Reading,
Annette




Comments

Anonymous said…
I loved this book.... It was a super fun, laugh out loud, and to easy read. I enjoyed it from cover to cover.... 2 thumbs up!!
March 6, 2014 at 6:27 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

-
Image
  You Go, Girl! Pure love—that’s what I felt about this book!  It’s smart, witty, and emboldening! I don’t know how many countless times I cheered or chuckled.   A female chemist struggles to rise above the chauvinistic male domination of the 1960s and live life on her terms despite ingrained oppression of women.  Hooray for this feminist heroine who points out that just because women’s bodies are smaller than men's doesn’t mean their brains are!   I fell in love with brilliant Elizabeth and her support system:  her impressively  smart daughter Mad; her straightforward neighbor Harriet; her kind-hearted producer Walter, the irreverent Reverend Wakely; and her obstetrician/rower Dr. Mason. Oh, and let’s not forget Six-Thirty, her beloved dog!   I would definitely be one of Elizabeth’s devoted fans of her show,  Supper at Six !  If my kids were still at home, I’d mimic Elizabeth and tell them, “Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.” (Even though I’m not the
Read more

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

-
Image
Italy: Just What the Doctor Ordered   This book is a sweet ray of sunshine (with a few stabs to the heart)! A group of grief-stricken people find solace in Italy and each other.   After a husband leaves his self-help radio talk show wife, she invites four random listeners to join her on what would have been her 25 th  wedding anniversary trip to Italy.  On this healing retreat, they each face their own grief in an old-world charming hotel where the innkeeper is stuck in the past and faces his own challenges.    I loved everything about this book:  the setting, the side trips to Florence and Venice, the delicious homemade food the hotel owner whips up, and the friendships formed through bonds of sorrow.   Charming and uplifting!    Pub date: June 6, 2023 If you like books set in Italy you may want to check out: One Italian Summer  by Rebecca Serle The Seamstress of Sardinia  by Bianca Pitzorno Beautiful Ruins  by Jess Walter Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions  by Mario Giordano A Room
Read more

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

-
Image
  Guilt and Consequences. Oooh this book knocked me off my feet!  I have read a lot of good books, but this one was one of the best I’ve read in a long time!   It’s about guilt, conscience, our role in society and as humans.  It was such a well-crafted slow burn, I had a difficult time putting it down.     In this riveting narrative, we are pulled from one page to the next edging toward a 91-year-old woman’s secret from WWII.  At the same time a drama plays out in current-day London, with both culminating to a jaw-dropping moment.   So good!!    Here are a couple lines to give you a taste of the book.   “I told myself that none of it had been my fault, that I had been just a child, but there was a small part of my brain that asked me, if I was entirely innocent, then why was I living under an assumed name?”   –pg 29   Gretel thought the sparkle had left her eyes—her best feature. “Now they were the color of barbed wire, of rusty ovens, of smoke and ash.”  –pg 98   “My wife belongs to m
Read more