Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Very moving story about family, creative oppression, and Seattle.

Sometimes in order to find yourself you need to get lost ...and the characters populating this book are completely and utterly gone.

Titular Bernadette Fox is the ugly American, Real Housewife of Seattle kvetching to her Indian virtual secretary Manjula, who she pays $30.00 a week to pull together travel itineraries, order anti-psychotics and blackberry abatement specialists. She's her offshore confidante who she can unload on about the weather, 5 way intersections and even Canadians.

“One of the main reasons I don't like leaving the house is because I might find myself face-to-face with a Canadian. Seattle is crawling with them. You probably think, U.S./Canada, they're interchangeable because they're both filled with English-speaking, morbidly obese white people. Well, Manjula, you couldn't be more mistaken....The way you might fear a cow sitting down in the middle of the street during rush hour, that's how I fear Canadians. To Canadians, everyone is equal. Joni Mitchell is interchangeable with a secretary at open-mic night. Frank Gehry is no greater than a hack pumping out McMansions on AutoCAD. John Candy is no funnier than Uncle Lou when he gets a couple of beers in him. No wonder the only Canadians anyone's ever heard of are the ones who have gotten the hell out. Anyone with talent who stayed would be flattened under an avalanche of equality. The thing Canadians don't understand is that some people are extraordinary and should be treated accordingly.”

Maria Semple wrote for Arrested Development - which should really be the one line review.

The story is a whirlwind, pieced together from police reports, hasty faxes, email directives to offshore virtual assistants, psychiatric evaluations, school newsletters, FBI abstracts and blogger transcripts. This allows Semple to write each character in their own voice.

From a former MacArther Genius to a Microsoft slash TEDTalk rockstar, private school marketing douche, mooney, self-help (Victims Against Victimhood) admin, high strung neighbour wound drum tight and a preternaturally smart tween daughter (naturally) they're all here. But don't just dismiss it as TV fluff on the page. It's smart and satisfying. Snark without being terribly mean spirited.

This book explored serious topics but also made me laugh. I liked the writing style and that helped me keep going through the book, I found the most ridiculous situations absolutely hilarious.

The end left things a little ambiguous as far as her relationship with her husband and I was disappointing with the fact that he kept against her even though he realized his part in his wife's disappearance. I wish he could have matured a little more.

Highly enjoyable novel, none-the-less. Her little girl was by far the most likable character.

Bernadette is a brilliant architect who has had a major melt down and is dismayed to find herself living in the cultural backwaters of Seattle with her beloved husband Elgin and beloved daughter Bee, friendless and unhappy, so unable to function in the world outside her crumbling home that she hires a virtual assistant in India to manage all her day-to-day activities.

That's all you really need to know, I think.

How does that sound? It's zany and a bit of a comic book novel, perhaps, but if this little blurb sounds fun, you will probably find the book to be fun, too.

I enjoyed this - an engaging read and funny, especially if you have spent any time in Seattle. I thought the end dropped off a bit, but oh well.

The biggest compliment I can pay this book is that it reminded me of “The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)” by Ellen Raskin. It falls apart in the end in a rushed resolution, but getting there is a clever, creative romp.