An Incredible Roller Coaster: Book Review - Where'd You Go Bernadette?



“Mom disappears into thin air two days before Christmas without telling me…”



A skittish woman in her fifties who hates the city she lives in, the mothers of the kids in her daughter's school and the world population in general. A fifteen year-old girl who has had an extraordinary childhood, now thrown in the middle of an extraordinary situation involving her family. A super genius coder who has won patents for his work in the field of artificial intelligence, but is slightly off when it comes to understanding the feelings of the people closest to him. An overzealous secretary who is best pals with the one person who is responsible for turning a mole into a mountain (who also happens to have the genius coder's ear) ends up stirring trouble where there never was. Add to the mix a psychiatrist who, despite having been specially called in as a favour, botches a psychiatric intervention; and you have a superb roller coaster ride called Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple! 

I am in the habit of picking up random books to read that pique my interest. And my sources range from brick and mortar to the unknown depths of the internet. i.e. I own a library card and abuse it (I am almost always overdrawn) and I also visit my share of bookstores and scrounge the second hand book market on most weekends. But because, obviously, this is not enough, I also look up for compelling reads online (Pinterest is one of the coolest places to pick up a lovely read, I must say).

And so it was, that on Pinterest I discovered Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple. (It features in several threads  – books with superb plot twists, books that you will have to read in one sitting, books that you will love to hate and hate to love….) I began reading it knowing it was a light comedy, and ended up being blown away by how much it made me think and introspect! 

Where’d You Go Bernadette? is a hysterical story of Bernadette Fox – a uniquely engaging character that keeps you hooked to the story right from the get go. Pretty early on in the story we get a picture of Bernadette – the free thinking, opinionated mother of a fifteen year-old. And then the story progresses and we see that Bernadette is so much more than just a woman with an attitude. We understand she is agoraphobic. We understand she loves her family and can do anything for them, but the same love doesn’t necessarily extend to herself. We understand there is a lot of back story to her that we want to know badly. But the present story keeps us so engaged that we are torn between our desire to keep reading and to know more about the backstory.

At one point, we think we have Bernadette all figured out. We think we know now what motivates her and why she is the way she is. And then we turn the page and bam! The backstory is suddenly upon us and that takes us into a whole new world! Once we know this backstory, we rethink all that we know about Bernadette; even feel sorry for her. And we begin to hope for a miracle that would save her. But from then on, things just go from bad to worse. And we come to a point where we completely lose hope.

Then Bernadette disappears!


Now we know there is no coming back from the depths of this misery – not for us, not for Bernadette, not for her family. But then we take a trip. With a fifteen-year old girl and her Dad. And there we see a world we don’t even know exists. And just as we are losing all hope and questioning our faith, we are surprised, yet again, by (by now) our beloved Bernadette!   

This is an incredible tale of love – love for your child, love for your spouse, love for your work, love for your creativity. This is also an ingenuous take on the extent to which things can go wrong if we don’t communicate with our partners. And last but not the least, this is a perceptive look at our tendency to ‘fix’ people around us if we find them not adhering to the standards set by society. (I absolutely loved the way the author has portrayed regular, everyday things we can relate to, in a way that leaves a lasting impact.)

But most of all, this story is all about Bernadette Fox! A character we can all relate to – if you love your work, you will relate to her; if you love your family, you will relate to her – and it is this understanding of Bernadette, that has us involved in this superbly histrionic character and her incredulous journey. It is a funny story, that makes you take a hard look at yourself and compels you to think. 

I picked this book for its intrigue. And I am happy I wasn’t disappointed. This is my first book of 2018. In fact, this was also my last book of 2017 – so technically, I rang in the New Year with Bernadette Fox and her family; and I am glad I did! I couldn’t have chosen a better book for the first read of the year – utterly heart-wrenching and superbly heart-warming at the same time.



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Accolades!

Accolades!