Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel
by Maria Semple
- Used
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Fine Minus/As New
- ISBN 10
- 0316204277
- ISBN 13
- 9780316204279
- Seller
-
Templeton, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012. Book. Fine Minus. Hardcover. Signed by Author(s). 1st Edition. 13th Printing. Signed on Orange County Literary Society book plate now affixed to the front free endpaper.Previous owner bookplate also on the front free end paper. Unread as new, fresh and crisp, straight from the bookstore shelf. Spine tight, boards rigid, tips pointed. No dings, marks or any other issues. Dust jacket looks spectacular in its new shiny mylar dust protector. Shipping box is suitable for wrapping with a non-price listed purchase order inside along with biodegradable packing..
Reviews
On Apr 19 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? is the second novel by American author and TV writer, Maria Semple. When Bernadette Fox disappears two days before Christmas and a scheduled family trip to Antarctica, her fifteen-year-old daughter, Bee is determined to track her down. She is sure that her dad, Microsoft guru Elgin Branch, knows more than he’s letting on. And she’s convinced that the shouting match with another school-mom, Audrey Griffiths, was the trigger for the disappearance. Bee’s narration of events is interspersed with emails, notes, a school report, letters, bills, blog posts, announcements, journal articles, a poem, an audio transcript and several faxes, each in a different font and format, and all of which fill in the background facts on incidents and characters. Thus the reader learns about Bernadette’s decline from celebrated young architect to socially anxious semi-recluse, Bee’s precarious early childhood and Elgin’s rise to MS fame, as well as what led to Bernadette’s flight and why the FBI got involved. Semple’s characters develop, and not always in an expected manner: one surprisingly discovers a conscience; another disappointingly gives in to temptation; another metamorphoses, perhaps predictably, from small and benign to large and threatening. They are characters that are familiar from everyday life: the fawning admin, the venomous school mom, the hard-working father, the text-book psychiatrist, the excruciatingly enthusiastic fund-raiser. As Bee trails her mom to the ends of the earth, the full gamut of reactions to loss is depicted. This is a hilarious book that nonetheless touches on some topical issues including work/life balance, trust, identity theft, post-traumatic stress and the best way to remove blackberry bushes. Readers may find some parts bring a lump to the throat, but will spend most of this clever novel laughing out loud.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Winding Road Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 001193
- Title
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel
- Author
- Maria Semple
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine Minus
- Jacket Condition
- As New
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0316204277
- ISBN 13
- 9780316204279
- Publisher
- Little, Brown and Company
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2012
- Keywords
- Literary Fiction
Terms of Sale
Winding Road Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Winding Road Books
Biblio member since 2019
Templeton, California
About Winding Road Books
Specialize in Psychology, First Editions, Speculative Fiction
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Plate
- Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e.,...