Bernadette Fox is considered a fearlessly opinionated partner, a disgrace, a revolutionary architect, a best friend, and a mother. When she disappears before a family trip to Antartica, her daughter Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence to help find her—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.
The book's author Maria Semple used to be a writer for Arrested Development (one of my favorite shows), and her clever wit shows up throughout the book. Her characters are loveable and complex and strange, and their interactions are often hilarious. I enjoyed her descriptions of Antarctica so much that I told Paul that we will be taking an Antarctica cruise...right after we win the lottery.