Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple is a real pleasure
to read. I particularly love the voice of the young narrator, Bee, the
14-year-old daughter of Bernadette.
The story begins with the shocking fact that Bee’s mother,
the funny, talented but somewhat volatile Bernadette, is missing. She was last
seen just before Christmas, and Bee’s father Elgin, a celebrated Microsoft
geek, is refusing to speak about his wife or the disappearance. So Bee decides
to investigate and begins to chart the events leading up to Bernadette’s
disappearance through emails, doctor’s
and police reports written by people who came in contact with Bernadette and
could have had a role to play in her disappearance.
What follows is a hilarious, tragic and poignant tale of
Bernadette’s life. Artistically talented and driven, Bernadette has been going
through a personal crisis for some time.
Soon after moving to Seattle to support her husband’s new glittering
career at Microsoft, she realises how different from everyone else she is and feels
ostracised in the forever rainy, suburban Seattle. The well-meaning, but
small-minded, parents of Bee’s school
(or Gnats as Bernadette calls them) soon begin to develop a strong resentment
against Bee’s mother, which turns into an obsessive hatred. The one person who
could help Bernadette, Elgin, remains ignorant of Bernadette’s unhappiness and
she becomes more withdrawn. Elgin doesn’t seem to notice that Bernadette hardly
ever speaks to anyone, or leaves the house, apart from Bee’s school runs, during
which she stays within the confines of her car, wearing dark sunglasses
whatever the weather. Or that she spends
all of her days inside an Airstream trailer parked in the garden of the
family’s falling-down house.
When Bee wants the whole family to go on a three week cruise
to Antarctica, Bernadette panics. How will she able to leave the house and spend
three weeks in the company of complete strangers?
Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a brilliantly conceived tale
of suburbia, and how the minor setbacks of everyday can turn into major
disasters. Telling a story of a 50-year-old woman’s personal crisis through the
voice of a 14-year-old would have been problematic had it not been for the injections
of the emails and reports written by grown-ups. These ‘real’ documents give the
story a multi-layered quality. Reading between the lines of emails written from
one (female) parent from Bee’s school to another (the two Gnats) is
particularly enjoyable. It’s not what’s said, but what’s not…(I’ve read a few of
these in my time).
I gave this book five stars, which is is rare, but I cannot
recommend this novel highly enough. Take it on a long journey, or on holiday
with you, or read it when you’ve broken your little toe (an every day
occurrence).
