Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel Audio CD – Unabridged, April 16, 2013

I decided to read Where’d You Go, Bernadette after I saw the trailer for the movie and thought it looked like it would be good. After reading the book I no longer have any interest in the movie. It was that bad. There is not a single likable character in the book. Bee was fine for the first 2/3, but then she showed her true colors and turned out to be just as obnoxious and unlikable as her mother. The affair between Bee’s father and his admin, resulting in the admin getting pregnant, is treated as no big deal and almost expected because his wife is a bit nuts. The health and medical claims are often just plain wrong. The actions of the psychiatrist are utterly ridiculous and unprofessional. The writing is mediocre. The author didn’t seem to know how to wrap up the story. The last ten pages rambled on way too long. I do not recommend this book at all.

Fifteen year old Bee lives in Seattle with her parents in a 12,000 square ft building that once was a Catholic school for wayward girls. To say their lifestyle is unconventional would be an understatement. Their "home" has blackberry vines growing through the floorboards, a roof that leaks like a sieve, and an odor that would assault anyone's nose who might enter; yet the three of them don't seem to notice. It's not because of lack of intelligence or money. They all have Einstein level IQs. Elgin has a very high level job at Microsoft, Bernadette is an award winning architect, and Bee has been accepted to a prestigious boarding school.They are planning on taking a trip to Antarctica over Christmas break, a reward for Bee's perfect report card. But things start going awry. And then Bernadette disappears...This is a strange story told in an unique way. It's told by Bee with the help of emails, letters from school personnel, police reports, medical reports, invoices, etc. This book is satirical; certainly not a book anchored in "everyday life" realism. In this regard, it reminds me a bit of Rachael Joyce's "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye"."Where'd You Go, Bernadette" isn't for everyone. Of course you can say that about every book ever published, but that goes double here. I would've given up on it if not for a reading buddy who pushed me to stick it out. The characters are not likable in the beginning (or understandable), especially Bernadette. But once I got through the first quarter, I was invested in the story. And when I reached the last page, I realized wisps of Bee, Bernadette, and Elgin have been written in my memory bank with a permanent marker. They'll fade, but never completely leave.Can't possibly give this less than 4 stars.

Thank goodness I picked this book back up after not liking the Kindle sample a couple of years ago. It was so odd and quirky—laid out as a series of speakers or written communications alternating to roll out the story. So many others loved the book that I gave it another try. I'm so glad I didn't miss this highly entertaining, funny, poignant, and remarkably original work.There are so many layers here, and my review will not do it justice. It is a screamingly funny and intelligent satire of the wealthy, bright, but eccentric "Microsoft executive types" in Seattle. A review on Amazon got it just right: "A whip-smart, hysterical dramady about a family in crisis after the disappearance of its misanthropic matriarch." That matriarch was Bernadette.Bernadette—at one time a revolutionary architect with a cult-like following—dropped out of that world to accompany her equally brilliant and odd husband to Seattle for his ground-breaking work in artificial intelligence with Microsoft. Their delightful daughter Bee is achieving great things at school and is relatively oblivious to her family's eccentricities or her mother's increasing agitation and agoraphobia in dealing with the "gnats"—parents at Bee's school whose antics and priorities are hilariously sublime satire.Bernadette's disappearance sends Bee and her father on a poignant, intense, and globe-trotting search, during which they uncover much about themselves and about the power of love and the importance of being true to one's self.

In a nutshell, this is a book that begs the reader to not take it seriously, and just simply enjoy the amusement park ride that it is.This was recommended to me because it was "quirky and fun". I learned the author had written for a few quirky comedy television shows, which helped me in setting my expectations before jumping in. And just as anticipated, it reads like a screenplay for a fun quirky comedy. Going in with that expectation, I found the book to be a delight to read ~ the author takes what would be heavy issues in reality, and lets us see them in another light hearted way.Also, having grown up in Seattle, just a few years behind Bill Gates, and having classmates that went to work for Microsoft, there was a nostalgic / sentimental feel for me, as I read through the escapades of Bernadette and the Galer Street Gnats ... definitely quirky and fun.

I didn't care much for this book. With all the hype, I was expecting a seriously funny, interesting book. I didn't like the characters and the plot was ridiculous. I didn't care for Bernadette. I thought she was a flake. Maybe to enjoy a book, you have to become engaged with the characters, but for me, I only liked and felt sympathy for the daughter. Now, I'm clearly in the minority of ratings. Many people read and enjoyed this book, so don't take my rating as the gospel. I think you should at least try a sample to see if the book is to your taste.

A really enjoyable change for me! Set principally in Seattle this is a highly entertaining story of Bernadette, a talented architect who hasn’t worked for twenty years, her husband Elgin who is a genius doing terribly clever things at Microsoft and their wonderful daughter Bee. I like Bernadette immensely and wouldn’t mind being a teeny bit like her - I’ve got loads of sunglasses and scarves so I’m heading in the right direction. Bee is fabulous and a daughter you would be proud to call your own. Elgin?? Weeelll. Let’s just say he comes good in the end. There are some fabulous characters that made me laugh especially Audrey who is utterly ghastly but she redeems herself later on. I love the Seattle setting and the story also takes us to Antarctica and although I have zero desire to go there it is fascinating if only for the penguins. Not sure how they’re going to match this book in the film but is suspect that too will be very entertaining!

I wonder if some of the reason that I had problems with this book was that it is very American. It's set in Seattle where apparently Microsoft is based and Bernadette's husband works for them - I have no idea if what she tells us about how they work is true but it all seems a bit bizarre. There are also the parents of the other children at the school which Bernadette's daughter Bee attends who seem to be very corporate in the way that they address things and how they attract new parents - is this real, or a satire. or both ? It is difficult to know from Britain.The book is told, initially, in a series of letters, reports and especially e-mails between the characters. Bernadette has been a successful, aware winning, architect but is now a recluse living with her husband and daughter in a semi-derelict house and never going out. She is at war with the other mothers, whom she describes as gnats, and she even puts up a placard on her boundary to insult them when they are holding an event. She suspects her husband of having an affair and she is challenged by the fact that her daughter wants to go to Antarctica. In the end Bernadette goes alone after running away from a difficult situation and is declared missing so her family go to try and find her and the book switches to the point of view of Bee.I really wasn't quite sure what to make of this book. I didn't know if Bernadette's behaviour was supposed to be a satire on how some American women do behave or whether the author thought it was as weird as I did. I had no real frame of reference. I recognised nothing in Bernadette to which I could relate and I, therefore, found her behaviour difficult to understand. I didn't recognise the middle-class lifestyle of Bernadette and her family in Seattle and the expectations that would come with that or the pressures of other to conform.When I had finished the book I was no wiser. I certainly didn't find it funny as others appear to have done.

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 a dark sun glasses 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).

I was really disappointed in the book, especially as it has been on many lists as a funny uplifting read it left me feeling very sad about what constitutes as humour these days. The main character is incredibly out of touch and unrelatable for most due to her incomparable wealth and inflated sense of entitlement. All characters in the books when relating to non white characters end up either speaking down to them or making racist remarks. They also look down at people with less wealth as though they are pests. There is also no character journey for these people to become more enlightened in the way they treat others they view as less than, so really this book promotes disgusting microaggresions. I'm really annoyed that books that centre white racist women with no moral conscience are so highly promoted especially when there are so many incredible stories out there which centre empowering women of a wider range of cultures that we will never get to hear. I hated this book and everything it stands for.

I read this because it was said to perfectly embody what a bestseller reads like. Yet it seemed to do anything but. I liked the savvy and funny Microsoft references. But even those stopped halfway through. Who is the main character? All the characters seem unpleasant and utterly self involved. So perhaps we are rooting for the child. But the whole thing is such a jumble of clever bits and ridiculous plot turns that I struggled to get started and only finished it to see if somehow things magically got better. They didn't. Suddenly the book finished.