---
title: "Book Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple"
description: "Absolutely hilarious. Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel You can tell from the writing style that Maria Semple writes for tv (Mad About You, Ellen, and Arrested Development. There's the charm and..."
url: https://somisguided.com/2014/03/22/book-review-whered-you-go-bernadette-by-maria-semple/
date: 2014-03-22
modified: 2018-07-20
author: "Monique"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Book Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Absolutely hilarious.

[!(https://somisguided.com/wp-content/uploads/where-you-go-bernadette.jpg)

Where’d You Go, Bernadette: A Novel](http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0316204277/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=15121&creative=390961&creativeASIN=0316204277&linkCode=as2&tag=somisguided-20)![](http://ir-ca.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=somisguided-20&l=as2&o=15&a=0316204277)

You can tell from the writing style that Maria Semple writes for tv (*Mad About You*, *Ellen*, and *Arrested Development*. There’s the charm and gentle funny nature of *Mad About You*, the snark of *Ellen*, and the quirkiness and mindboggling reality checks of *Arrested Development*. The basics of the story are this: Bee is 15. Her mother has disappeared. Her father is cagey about the reasons. The novel is pieced together in emails, invoices and the absolutely funny school memos.

Quote: Dear Parents,

This is the clarify that Bernadette Fox, Bee Branch’s mother, was driving the vehicle that ran over the other parent’s foot. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend despite the rain.

Kindly,

Gwen Goodyear

Head of School

Some of the funniest moments, without spoiling the story, are about blackberry abatement, 5-way corners in Seattle, and parenting in a world without school grades.

I highly recommend this for people who like funny, quirky characters, non-traditional novel writing and are generally willing to laugh at themselves. Undoubtably there’s something of all of us in these characters.