Picture this: you are on the subway or the bus, minding your own business, when all of a sudden, someone sitting near you abruptly starts laughing hysterically. You look over, annoyed, and they seem to be reading a book. It’s awkward. You go back to trying to ignore this person. This scenario happens occasionally on public transportation and I am usually irritated by it, but for the past few weeks, that person has been me and the book has been Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.Called “divinely funny” by the New York Times, Where’d You Go Bernadette is the story of fifteen-year-old Bee, whose mother is the brilliant, manic, anti-social Bernadette of the title. Bee’s parents had promised her that if she achieved perfect grades throughout middle school, she could pick anything she wanted as a graduation present. When Bee achieves this feat, she claims her desired prize: a family trip to Antarctica. Naturally, this sends agoraphobic Bernadette into a sort of anxiety-driven mania. She hires a “virtual assistant” based in India to make all preparations for her, from shopping for gear to booking flights.
Meanwhile, Bernadette is waging war with the type-A, super-involved mothers at Bee’s private school, Galer Street School, who constantly judge her and gossip about her eccentricities. She fights their cattiness in her own crazy ways, like having her virtual assistant order and have installed in her yard an 8’ x 5’ billboard reading “PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING Galer Street Gnats will be Arrested and Hauled off to Gnat Jail”. The sign ends up toppling over and destroying her neighbor’s house. - See more
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