Where'd You Go Bernadette

I read this book in two days: it was that fun. Snarky, funny, sad, bittersweet - this book is all of that and more.  Bernadette is a wife and mother living in Seattle. She is not happy on any level. She is married to a tech wiz who works at Microsoft, her daughter is a near perfect student, and she is a mess. She was once a well respected architect. She has promised her daughter, Bee, that they will go anywhere she wants if she gets perfect grades. Bee does and wants to go on a cruise to Antarctica. Bernadette doesn't "do" people.  Anti-social boarding on pathological, she is truly afraid of having to deal with other people and a cruise would require her to interact with other people.

She wants to be disengaged from humans so  much she hires an assistant in India to deal with everything.  Bills, dinner reservations, planning and booking the trip, everything. Her husband, Elgie, is so immersed in his career he isn't really paying attention. After a series of increasingly bizarre acts, he finally starts to pay attention. He stages an intervention, during which Bernadette disappears. No one can locate her and it appears she actually went on the cruise to Antarctica and disappeared from the ship.

This story is told with different narrators; Bernadette, her daughter, the psychiatrist, Elgie. But the story line isn't disrupted. Plus the snarky comments add to this book. Semple skewers: Microsoft, Seattle,  private schools, social climbers, environmentalists among others. I think ending is wholly implausible, but I still really liked this book. A light easy read there are some laugh out loud moments. There are also some heartbreaking ones. I recommend this book.

Check our catalog