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Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Book Report #219 Where'd You Go, Benadette

Where'd You Go, Benadette by Maria Semple

When I started this, I wasn't sure I'd finish it. Bernadette struck me as a bland, pathetic nutcase so I wasn't sure we could go anywhere interesting. The lack of her backstory for the first part of the book made it hard to sympathize with her.

Also, I wasn't sure about the format. It isn't a regular narrative. There are emails, articles, text conversations and all kinds of things thrown in, and initially I wasn't sure why.

But once those hurdles were overcome, we were flying. I love getting a front seat to watching entitled rich people get spectacularly foiled. Since Bernadette was a standoffish mother at an almost top tier school in Seattle, the scene was perfectly set. Throw in some drama at Microsoft and a pending trip to Antarctica, and it's delicious, smart insanity.

Genereal consensus: It has the tempo of a smart heist movie but it's about a family finding their way back to each other. Genius.

I just found out the movie is in theaters right now!!

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