Where did you go Bernadette by Maria Semple is a light and fun read but it had many similarities to another book I liked better, The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days by Ian Frazier. I almost put down “Bernadette” because it was so similar.
Where Did You Go Bernadette is assembled by Bernadette’s middle school daughter from emails, documents and other scraps of information. Bernadette is a lonely housewife who doesn’t get along with her neighbors or the parents of her daughter’s classmates. She calls the fellow parents “Galer School Gnats” and has made sure she never receives any of the school emails about what is going on there. After the novel establishes out what makes Bernadette tick and unfolds her secret past, she disappears. At this point the story becomes a little tedious. But I liked the prose and the characters so I finished the book and the ending was satisfactory. This was Semple’s first novel and I look forward to more.
I enjoyed the Cursing Mommy more because despite her cursing she was an unsinkable character who was a dedicated and generous friend. That book made me laugh out loud at nearly every page and I only laughed a few times reading Bernadette.