Disfunction Junction

At some point in my day at my new job I sit right across from all the new release books. Sounds great doesn't it? Oh it is, but I check them out too fast to keep up with them. Anyway, I heard about this one through the media several times and as usual I ignored it. I didn't warm to the idea of it truthfully until I saw a review for it from an author I hugely respect, Jonathan Franzen ( The Corrections, Freedom). Within a couple of days of reading Franzen's review, I saw it on the shelf and decided to go with it. I'm glad I did.

Where'd you go Bernadette tells a humorous, transparent, swiftly paced tale of Bernadette Fox, a once thriving, promising and talented professional who let her life and passion slip slowly though her fingers.  She is the wife of a genius Microsoft engineer with a genius spark of her own who is raising a genius of a daughter. The readers find her struggling to cope with basic life skills and tasks while at the same time being a enjoyable character. We get to learn about Bernadette through her peers, husbands, daughters and own eyes while never quite knowing whose side you're on or how you feel about her. At some stages you wholly empathize with a woman who could have had it all and was a victim, then there are points where she is a self pitying, misery loves company recluse, and then even later on we see her being a super hero mother who fully and truly understands her daughter and the ways of the world.
But not once along the way did I find myself disliking her. She is all at once charming, funny, brave, selfish, cynical, uneven and lovable.

The humor in the writing carry this story through out. No lulls, no endless chapters, no looking ahead to see how far you have to go. A cast of supporting characters makes for the most fun moments while working to string the main narrative into a nice tight weave.

If it were summer I'd say a great beach read but it's not. Although I do live in Florida so it is beach weather in the middle of January. Grab a copy and this book and you will be entertained and if you want to dig deeper can look into the psychology of this brilliantly erratic woman. Start reading and you will find out just in fact where Bernadette went.