Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel by Maria Semple

Author's website

This book was enjoyable but I wouldn't call it great or compelling. It was kind of weird.

Bernadette is the name of the narrator's mother. The book is a compilation of emails and documents that slowly unveil the story of Bernadette's disappearance. The family -- the daughter/narrator, her father and mother -- live in Seattle. 

The father works at Microsoft and there's a kind of sub-plot of him, his project at Microsoft (mind-controlled robots) and his affair, or really one-night-stand with his administrative assistant. The mother, Bernadette, is an architect who won the MacArthur genius grant before the daughter was born, and now stays at home and seems to be almost agoraphobic, hardly ever venturing outside her house. The daughter, named Bee, goes to a private school and the super-involved parents, especially two mothers, at the school are central figures in the story, too.

A central part of the story is the fact that the family is planning a trip to Antarctica as a reward for Bee's excellent grades. Before they go, though, Bernadette runs away, escapes, actually, and the family does not go on the trip as planned. Later Bee and her father go, after Bernadette has been gone long enough that many consider her dead or lost forever. Bee has not given up hope, though, and continues to look for her mother.

Because the story is revealed through a bunch of different documents, there are many voices and viewpoints. It's not my favorite way to read a story, but it wasn't as frustrating as that device sometimes can be. I still wanted to keep on reading and find out what happened. The characters and plot are interesting, but I guess I didn't think they were that realistic. Kind of cartoony.

Anyway, it's a light read and not bad.