Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple Review

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

I loved this book. It was so much fun. I listened to the audiobook version, which was awesomely narrated by Kathleen Wilhoite. The narration was done well and added so much personality to story. She did a great job making the characters sound different even when their word usage was similar. There was a big shift about 2/3 of the way through and it was a total change. It wasn't believable, but that's okay if you just let it go and enjoy the story for what it is. The book is set to be made into a movie by director Richard Linklater (known for Boyhood, A Scanner Darkly) starring Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Lord of the Rings) is in talks to play Bernadette. I could easily see her in the role, though I think Tilda Swinton would be amazing as Bernadette. 

Amazon Description:

 Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

This book is available for checkout from the Lake County Library.