Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Genre: Fiction

I gave this book ***

This is the story of Bernadette, her husband Elgin and their daughter, Bee (an elementary school student). Bernadette, a former architect, McArthur Grant winner and all around spunky woman, is a stay-at-home mom and resident of a magnificent home/property in one of Seattle’s exclusive neighborhoods (I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of this home and another home Bernadette designs early in her career). The story begins with Bee telling her parents she wants to go on a cruise to Antarctica and because she’d earned top grades at school, her parents agree. From there we learn that Bernadette does not like the mothers at Bee’s school and that they really don’t like her. Elgin, a top officer at Microsoft, works long hours and is often absent from home and misses many of Bernadette’s antics. When Elgin learns about one event in particular, along with other oddities of Bernadette’s, he believes his wife is suffering a mental psychosis and tries to have her hospitalized. In a funny turn of events, Bernadette escapes the intervention and ends up on the Antarctica cruise, or does she? This story has one of those endings that’s all wrapped up in a bow.

This was a light, enjoyable read. The brilliance of the story, though, is really in the writing. It is written from Bee’s perspective and is told through letters, emails and various documents. When we learn of Bernadette from her own emails or interactions she has with Bee, we meet an opinionated, charismatic, funny, sweet woman who is surely quirky and somewhat odd. However, when we learn of Bernadette through the perceptions of the mothers at her daughter’s school and then later her husband, we meet a socially awkward, often inappropriate, suicidal woman who is in trouble. This juxtaposition is the crux of the story. Some interpret her actions as inappropriate but through her eyes we learn that there are clear and concise motivations for them. Semple does a good job exploring the idea that the way we see ourselves is perhaps not always the way others see us.