Bernadette Fox, a once famous architect, lives in Seattle with her tech genius husband, Elgie, and their brilliant teenage daughter, Bee.  A beautiful city, marriage, and child. She seems to have it all. Except, like most people, she really doesn’t. Bernadette’s past trauma and anti-social personality inhibit her daily life to the point that she hires a virtual assistant to run her errands. After promising to take Bee on a trip to Antarctica, she finds herself under increasing pressure and anxiety until she disappears completely. Bee and Elgie must try to find her even with the ever-pervasive distractions of life.

An epistolary novel, the work is as wacky and endearing as it is witty and satirical.  The different formats keep things lively and allow Temple the best of both worlds; first person (Bee) and omnipotent narrative (the numerous emails, hand-written notes, phone calls and faxes exchanged between characters).  The characters are lovable and their sentiments relatable. However, sometimes it seems as if everything but the kitchen sink was thrown into the story only to see if it would work.  It is an experimental novel that doesn’t quite manage to land on its feet.  The ending was satisfactory but the movie adaptation smoothed out the rough edges better.  Overall, a nice weekend read but nothing that will stay long after putting it down.