Synopsis(via Goodreads):
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
This insomniac's opinion:
My bibliophile buddy, Krissy, read this book and immediately decided that she must share the greatness of this novel with the rest of our book club(ahem-posse!) and I am so glad that she did!
The first few chapters were really hard to get into. The book is primarily a series of e-mails written by many different characters. I was truly wondering if Krissy had led me astray. But, then the magic began to happen. I became endeared to the characters(most of them, anyway) and started voraciously reading this novel, ignoring my housework to rip through the rest of the novel.
Much of the novel is light-hearted and there are quite a few funny bits. However, this novel also really touched on how out of touch our society currently is and our precedence of money over true relationships. Bernadette and Bee are delightful bright spots in a cookie cutter suburban world. Truly enjoyable novel.
Worth staying up all night to read?
I did!
Rating: 4 stars
Glad you liked it - I had the very same reaction to the first bit of the book too!
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