Book 3 Review

Not all fun and games in Where’d You Go Bernadette

Harry Taylor

            Meet Bernadette: brilliant, eccentric, complex, and as some would argue, clinically insane. Bernadette Fox lives in Seattle with her husband, Elgin, a high-ranking Microsoft superstar, and her daughter Bee, a delicate girl with an IQ off the charts. However, the audience soon discovers that much like Seattle’s weather; life can be very chaotic and gloomy in the world of Bernadette Fox. She is completely fed-up with life in Seattle: the weather, and hustle-and-bustle, the Canadians, the drab hair styles (as Bernadette would say, “They’re only two hair styles in Seattle, short gray hair and long gray hair” (Semple 128)), and most of all, she is fed up with “the gnats”—her neighbors and fellow private school mothers. As the novel continues on, Bernadette continues to crack, bit-by-bit, until full on hilarity (and chaos) ensues. Told through a collection of emails, magazine clippings, bank statements, personal accounts, report cards, and phone conversations, young Bee takes it upon herself to piece together the story of her mother. Bernadette’s past, present, and future are divulged in a quick-paced fashion, leaving behind a touching story of a mother and daughter, and revealing what happens when someone is pushed to their limit. 

                        While reading Where’d You Go Bernadette, an interesting debate was sparked in my mind: Who is the smartest character in the story? Certainly there are several characters that one could make a solid case for; Bernadette is a genius architect and won a MacArthur Genius Grant for “Being green twenty years before being green was cool”, Elgin, who is a high ranking Microsoft employee and developed a technology worthy of the fourth most watched TED talk of all time, and Bee, who gets straight S’s (“Surpassing Excellence!”) in school. For anyone who has read the book, the debate surely is an interesting one, because while each character possesses so many merits, they also possess a myriad of faults. Bernadette offshored most of her life to a virtual assistant, Elgin cheated on his emotionally unstable wife, and Bee failed out of the Choate Boarding School for no apparent reason other than that she wanted to. Regardless of who the reader deems as the most intelligent, it surely says something that Semple inundates her novel with so many brilliant—yet flawed characters. Maybe Semple is attempting to make a statement about equality and self-worth, or maybe she is simply channeling the “dysfunctional family” dynamic she perfected after years on shows such as Arrested Development.

            Another interesting note is the setting of Antarctica in the story. While reading the novel, the reader surely asks themselves “why did Semple choose Antarctica as a setting?” While Antarctica may seem random, it actually makes perfect sense. Bee describes Antarctica as “The highest, windiest, driest, coldest place on Earth” (Semple 230). What better place for an unlikely family reunion? What better place to demonstrate just how far someone (in this case, Bernadette) will go to escape their troubles? Semple finds ways to put meaning even in the smallest of details, one of her novels most entertaining qualities.

            The one flaw in Semple’s otherwise mischievous second novel is the inconsistency in its form. One of the largest selling points of Where’d You Go Bernadette is its incredibly unique formatting. Jonathan Evison, the author of West of Here, called it “Brilliant, hilarious, endlessly inventive, and compulsively readable”. And for much of the novel (about the first ¾) that holds true. The novel is delivered in a light never before seen by many readers –through a collection of reports and articles, to go along with the occasional character-narration. However, towards the end of the novel, this unique formatting tapers off in favor of a more traditional style. Rather than ending the book in her ingenuously playful style, Semple appeared to get cold feet (possibly Antarctic cold? Ha!), and ended the novel largely with a narration by Bee as she and Elgin journeyed to Antarctica in search of Bernadette. It’s likely that Semple, who had only written a single previous novel, lacked the touch and finesse to continue her style throughout. Regardless of this inconsistency, the ending of Where’d You Go Bernadette is still good, but readers can’t help but feel like Semple never quite found its full potential.

            In the end, Where’d You Go Bernadette, is a very good read. It will never end up on a “greatest books” list, but that’s not its purpose. The book is a quick, fun read with a provocative edge, worthy of earning it 7.5 out of 10.