Ooospie......by the time BQ crashed the library book club for this one, turns out I was seven years late.......
But since I'm the last avid reader to finally get around to this book, might as well give it a shot, what with the movie finally about to open........
Is it a laugh riot, like all the reviews promise? Ehhhh.......sometimes. At the start.
Okay, there's some LOL's sprinkled through the first half of the book, which functions as a merciless, witty takedown of self-absorbed, Northern California One Percenters......
So imagine "Big Little Lies" (the book) with a higher laugh count.......(I specifically mean the book version of "Big Little Lies" since the HBO mini-series drained out the wit as if using a spaghetti strainer....)
Amid the yocks, "Bernadette"s first half also effectively sketches out its titular character, a brilliant architect whose iconoclastic genius is admired, yet cruelly thwarted......
Unfortunately we move on the book's second half, a dreary pseudo-mystery contraption dealing with Bernadette's disappearance.......and plowing through it, you have more than enough time to contemplate how obnoxious all the characters are......
After an endless sojourn in Antarctica (don't ask, I'm beggin' ya), the book comes to a stunningly abrupt conclusion........(I don't doubt readers who thought somebody tore out pages of their copy......)
I always got the feeling of a real book and a real story buried somewhere deep inside.......a might-have-been, compelling novel about Bernadette and her mighty struggle against the forces of conventionality arrayed against her.......
But that's mostly drowned out by the jokes and farcial turns of plot.....this book doesn't want to delve into Bernadette all that much......it just craves adoration for its cleverness.
And clever it is.......for a while.......2 stars (**) as we turn out the lights.....(being the last to leave the Book Club meeting room....)
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