Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple has the distinct honor of being the first book I read on my new Kindle. And I say honor specifically because I have spent the last few years of my life ignoring everyone who told me to purchase a Kindle-I refused because I said "real" books are better.

Well, to be honest, they still are. But the beautiful thing about my fancy new e-reader is that I finished this book so quickly because I had no qualms about schlepping it around with me. Bernadette is a new book, so it is still in hardcover, and let's be real-hardcover books are hefty.

It is a true testament to Semple's writing that I was just as engrossed in her novel as I was with any other "real" book I read this break. Semple crafts such an engaging and personality-filled novel that I swear I know these characters in real life.

Bernadette chronicles the efforts of a daughter to find her mother, who goes missing for a nebulous reason. However, considering the title of the novel is Where'd you go, Bernadette, Bernadette does not go anywhere for quite a few pages.
There are three major conflicts in the novel between Bernadette and her parents, Elgin and Bee: Bernadette's problems with, well, everything; Elgin's obsession with work; and then Bernadette goes missing, prompting Bee to search for her. While these plotlines do not inherently seem to mesh, Semple weaves them together in such a way that the novel as a whole would not work if one of the problems were removed.

First, Semple takes the reader on a humorous tour of the lives of Bernadette, Elgin and Bee Branch. Bernadette is essentially the mother from you-know-where: She's paranoid and agoraphobic, she hates the other families and parents, she seems to have fits of psychosis and she has an all-out war with the mother who lives in the house behind the Branch's home. The way in which Semple crafts this story gives the reader points of view from almost all the characters involved in the story, and she also gives distinctive voices to each character. Page one starts with Bee's eighth-grade report card, segues into Bee's narrative of a dinnertime conversation, then transitions to an email from Bernadette to Manjula (Bernadette's virtual assistant from India) and continues into a letter from Bee's school to the parent association-and so on.

Narrating this novel in such a way allows the reader to feel even more connected and attuned to the whims and motives of characters, which constantly undermines the loyalty a reader may feel toward the major narrator. Personally, I enjoyed these shifting points-of-view, although the side stories each character brought to the table got, at times, overwhelming. There is a lot of information thrown at the reader, but it all ties together by the end, which I find satisfying.

The event kicking off this novel is the arrival of Bee's report card, for which she received all As. Apparently, her parents promised that she could have "anything she wanted" if she achieved this goal, and what Bee wants is a family trip to Antarctica. Because her parents do not object, Bernadette has Manjula book the entire trip and order supplies for the family.
Setting the stage with the Antarctica trip, Semple moves into an orchestration of

Bernadette's conflict with the other mothers in Bee's class. Cleverly, she gives the reader both sides of the feud. She succeeds in this by including correspondence between Bernadette and Manjula (the closest person Bernadette has to a friend) in addition to email exchanges between two mothers at the school. Add Bee's narration on top of this, and Semple paints such a detailed picture of events the reader would swear they were looking at a Michelangelo.

Semple's attention to detail and her engrossing yet light way writing make Where'd You Go, Bernadette a treat. After a semester of reading dense novels for English classes, the book is a quick, easy read. I still recommend it, particularly if you would like to know what a blackberry abatement specialist is, and what it has to do with where Bernadette went.
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