Where’d You Go Bernadette

Hi, and welcome to this month’s episode where I will be reviewing Maria Semple’s novel, Where’d You Go Bernadette.

The novel was published in 2012 and the movie starring Cate Blanchett was released 7 years later. Both works of art have received several award nominations in the literary and film industries.

The story is centred around an early-retired and introverted architect, Bernadette Fox. She lives in Seattle with her only daughter Bee, and her husband, Elgin, a product developer at Microsoft. Upon receiving excellent marks at school, Bee forces her parents to keep their promise of taking a family trip to Antartica. In the weeks preceding the trip, dramatic, and strangely amusing events happen to Bernadette and she decides to flee without news. Her daughter sets out to find out where her mother went and why.

It is funny, dramatic, and entertaining. The story behind Bernadette feels so real, like it could have happened in our world.

A truly deserving 5 out 5 stars. The book lives up to all the expectations set up in its description and its reviews. It is funny, dramatic, and entertaining. The story behind Bernadette feels so real, like it could have happened in our world. Her career story was told with detail and reflects what a lot of professionals go thought. Even thought she had a complete characterization change because of triggering factors I won’t reveal to not spoil the fun, it doesn’t feel far-fetched at all. The same goes for every character in the universe Semple has created. Their co-existence with each other and with their particular environment, which is Seattle, is well carried-out. Elgie working at Microsoft fits with the city being tech-centred and yet, he is also a great husband for Bernadette since his personality matches with his wife’s. He goes beyond the stereotypical workaholic tech developer and retains a reality aura about him. In general, the characters have realistic traits like social anxiety coupled with confidence and irrational fears. These mixes are what I believe make this novel so great. The characters resemble readers and appeal to them, much better than clichés. You know about the workaholic who only cares about their work, neglecting their family, committing adultery, and leaving. While this is a probable real-life situation, it has been so used in novels that it has lost its charm and dramatic effect. You should note that Bernadette connects better with her daughter than her husband and once again, the couple defy expectations and stay married without becoming strangers after the series of domestic events unfolding in the later half of the novel.

Now back to the mystery surrounding Bernadette. It goes beyond uncovering where she disappeared to. It involves untangling her complex thoughts, sporadic actions, and inconsistent behaviour. Through the author’s physical and narration structuring, the reader actively engages with the story as opposed to classical domestic fictions where they possess a passive role. You can think of Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth (for which you can check out the review in the previous episode, if you have not yet done so). The collage of letters and emails add to the charm of the novel and I think it encourages us to read more at a time. It breaks the typical monotone paragraphs and chapter divisions. With the collage, we also get multiple points of view and I admire the skill Semple has to not make the events of the plot repetitive because we get these points of view for the same moments in time.

The reader actively engages with the story as opposed to classical domestic fictions where they possess a passive role.

I will end with the most important, the plot! While I have talked about it, I want to say that the author managed reader expectations very well. From the title and the back-cover, we form this perception that the book is about a mystery and yet it’s not quite as dramatic and engaging as we think it to be. What I mean by that is, the reader doesn’t have to actively look for clues Bernadette left behind and try to uncover before her family where she went. We can just sit back, enjoy the comedic show of everyone going out of their way to get her back and wait for the end reveal.

As with anything in life, this book can’t be perfect. I’m sure it contains some flaws or at least some hiccups that readers will judge with their own perceptions and values. I can’t really think of anything bad to say at the moment. I’ve had time to watch the movie and reflect on the novel from the moment I finished reading the book up until this recording. I still stand by the opinion that it’s an excellent novel with imperceptible faults.

In the upcoming review, I wanted to find a light and easy-flowing beach read for the first month of the summer. Stick around to find out if The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes lives up to its Internet hype.

Until our next literary journey, keep exploring those pages!