Where'd You Go, Bernadette? - Maria Semple - 3 stars

[Linda C]

The narrator of the book is Bee, a precocious 8th grader, who uses memos, letters, emails and other documents to tell of the disappearance of her mother, Bernadette. Hopefully this analysis will help her locate her mother. Bernadette was an architect with lots of potential who radically changed into an almost agorophobic when she moved from LA to Seattle, when her husband, Elgie, went to work for Microsoft. She calls the parents of other students at Bee's school gnats and deals with life through a “virtual administrative assistant”. Their house is falling down around them and minor incidents become major confrontations. When Elgie tries to get her help, she disappears. There is lots of satire about Microsoft, private schools, self-help groups, architecture, psychiatrists and religion.

Some of it very funny. But I didn't really warm up to Bernadette or Elgie and Bee seemed a character made to keep everything tied together. Interesting but not a winner.

[Denizen]

Linda C wrote: "The narrator of the book is Bee, a precocious 8th grader, who uses memos, letters, emails and other documents to tell of the disappearance of her mother, Bernadette. Hopefully this analysis will he..."

I've had this book on my TBR for several years and probably would have deleted it by now if I hadn't snagged it as a Daily Deal way back when. Has it been tagged as satire - just in case?

[Linda C]

it is tagged satire 99 times