Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox is notorious.

To Elgie Branch, a Microsoft wunderkind, she's his hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled wife.

To fellow mothers at the school gate, she's a menace.

To design experts, she's a revolutionary architect.

And to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, quite simply, mum.

Then Bernadette disappears. And Bee must take a trip to the end of the earth to find her.

For me, I have to be really in the mood for comedy for me to enjoy it. Arguably you could say that about any other genre but it’s particularly the case with humour. As a result, this novel has been started and restarted a number of times but I can now tell you I have finished it. I know you’ve been waiting for that piece of news and you feel SO great right now that you can read this review.

If someone asked me whether they would enjoy this novel, I would ask ‘Did you enjoy Paul Torday’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen?' The book that is, not the film. If you were one of those people that absolutely hated that book DON’T PICK THIS UP.

What do I mean by that? Well it’s true that the plot couldn’t be more different. Where Yemen has a distinct lack of water, Seattle has its fair share, there’s no real romance in this – the main relationship you’re interested in is that between mother and daughter. Where'd You Go Bernadette? for me, however, had a very similar tone and sense of humour. Slightly wacky and off the wall while remaining brilliantly observant and it has that scrapbook quality where we gather the plot from a series of different perspectives and through a variety of different mediums – newspaper cuttings, emails, post-it notes, log books etc.

I did enjoy it and I would recommend it to people. If you don’t enjoy embracing the quirky (I made the mistake of recommending When God Was a Rabbit to a friend thinking it was a gentle tale only to be told how VERY WEIRD it was…), don't read this but if you fancy something a little different to break up your usual reading habits, do give it a go – I think you’ll appreciate it. I generally think that our favourite novels are rarely comedies because the ‘heart’ is so often sacrificed. I think that happens here too. It does all get a bit silly by the end and, as the Observer describes ‘[the book] is constructed from a collection of self-absorbed perspectives’, but the heart is there somewhere and if you were feeling particularly hormonal, you may even well up a bit at the bonds made and broken and the dreams surrendered… I wasn’t feeling emotional so that didn’t happen for me but it’s a laugh, easily above average and worth a read: 6.5/10.

Other reviews:
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday