"Where'd You Go, Bernadette" by Maria Semple 是一本諷刺喜劇，新鮮有創意，爆笑又感人，寫得精彩幽默，妙趣橫生。

這部小說最特別的地方就是它的文體－－幾乎全由短信、email、收據、報告合輯，中間穿插著主角Bee的獨白。 就好像一個爆滿的文件箱被打開，裏麵的文件被一一曝光，架構出故事的脈絡肌理，內容荒誕、機智、誇張、又生動，似一場場滑稽劇在眼前上演，過癮極了。

Bee是一個天資聰穎的15歲女孩，和父母一家三口住在西雅圖的upscale suburb。 在旁人眼裏，他們家是人人稱羨的霹靂精英強強組合：爸爸畢業於MIT，在微軟位居要職，領導近250人的當紅project，還締造出點閱率第四高的TED演講；媽媽畢業於Princeton，曾經是贏得天才大獎的建築師新星，領導綠色革命的先行者；而Bee在私立學校也出類拔萃。 但令人費解的是，外表光鮮亮麗的他們卻住在一棟破爛不堪的古早女童感化院，嚴重漏水、雜草叢生、藤蔓從地板夾縫中破土而出，而出身建築師的媽媽卻完全視而不見。 她足不出門，把家事全外包給遠在印度的網路virtual助理，跟鄰居、學校家長格格不入，對西雅圖、對周遭社區都怨聲載道，碎碎念到煩死人。

就在全家要利用聖誕節假期去南極度假前，老媽卻突然失蹤了。 Bee不相信媽媽會拋下她，決心要一探究竟。 故事在這本書後1/3處有令人意想不到的轉折，很誇張但也很窩心。

這本小說可愛、有趣、好玩，但不要太計較人物和意義，反正讀起來很享受，給大家推薦。 馬上要拍成電影了，趕快買來先‘讀’為快啊。

quotes:

“That's right,' she told the girls. 'You are bored. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret about life. You think it's boring now? Well, it only gets more boring. The sooner you learn it's on you to make life interesting, the better off you'll be.”

“This is why you must love life: one day you're offering up your social security number to the Russian Mafia; two weeks later you're using the word calve as a verb.”

“Maybe that’s what religion is, hurling yourself off a cliff and trusting that something bigger will take care of you and carry you to the right place.”

“I can pinpoint that as the single happiest moment of my life, because I realized then that Mom would always have my back. It made me feel giant. I raced back down the concrete ramp, faster than I ever had before, so fast I should have fallen, but I didn't fall, because Mom was in the world.” 

“Can you believe the weather?'...'Actually, I CAN believe the weather. What I can't believe is that I'm actually having a conversation about the weather.” 

“Here’s something about Mom: she’s bad with annoyances, but great in a crisis. If a waiter doesn’t refill her water after she’s asked three times, or she forgets her dark glasses when the sun comes out, look out! But when it comes to something truly bad happening, Mom plugs into this supreme calm.”