Where’d You Go Bernadette is a funny, poignant story told in letters, faxes, emails, reports and bills. It is about 15 year old Bee Branch and her brilliant but eccentric parents Bernadette Fox and Elgin Branch. They promise her anything if she gets a perfect report card. Bee chooses a cruise to, of all places, Antartica.
What follows is a hilarious series of events that pokes fun at parenting, progressive schools, Seattle, Microsoft, Canadians, the life of the privileged, and much more. It caused us to laugh out loud frequently but also managed to make us empathize with the emotional pain that the characters go through. Since the book is narrated through several points of view, we were all reminded of the advice to not judge unless “you’ve walked in their shoes”. Where Bernadette has “gone” refers to both the physical and mental absence.
The book’s format is unlike anything we have read, and was a refreshing change from our list of past reads. The characters were interesting and likeable. Many of us could identify with Bernadette’s feelings of lost identity and feelings of not fitting in when the family relocated to Seattle. She doesn’t particularly identify with the other mothers from Bee’s school and she nicknames them The Gnats.
Overall, the feedback on the book was consistent and ranged from 3.5 to 4.0 with an average of 3.79. New member Patty rated our group a perfect 5.0, so pat yourselves on the back ladies
I have updated the Timbers Book Club blog with all
the upcoming books. If it doesn’t look
correct please let me know. We have
books through July of next year!
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