If you ask any mother who is being honest, she will tell you of the moments that thoughts of driving on the expressway, as far and as fast as she can, do cross her mind. She will admit to moments of mind numbing carpool chatter and stressful room-mother duties. She however, unlike Bernadette, rarely goes through with those fantasies. Once an award winning architect, Bernadette now has trouble leaving her house. She hires a virtual assistant (from India of all places) and tries to hide the extent of her madness. Amazingly, the reader can relate to her in ways that tug on the heartstrings. Her dismay at being stuck in Seattle is very real and suffocating, and we watch her relationships crumble around her.
Interestingly enough, this book is quite humorous. Semple's imagination peeks out of every page, and her wit kept me laughing as I turned each page. Although not typical of the books that I usually review, I found Where'd You Go, Bernadette a book I will long remember.
- Beverly
Publisher - Little, Brown and Company
Date of Publication - August 14, 2012