51 pages 1 hour read

Maria Semple

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012

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Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3 Summary: “Menace to Society”

Part 3 opens with a comical poem from Audrey Griffin's Christmas letter describing how, as a consequence of the mudslide, the Griffin family is now living in a Westin hotel. In the poem she depicts the experience as an extended spa vacation, but a subsequent exchange of emails with Soo-Lin reveals Audrey as bitter and focused on vengeance against Bernadette and her family. Soo-Lin says she would have been happy to have the Griffins stay at her house. Audrey tells Soo-Lin the Westin is nothing like she depicts it in the poem and complains about the street kids she saw stumbling out of the elevator at two in the morning. She notes that Kyle’s eyes are constantly bloodshot from the stress of living in these conditions. 

Soo-Lin’s email describes how, at Elgin’s suggestion, the two of them take a lunchtime ride of bicycles from the Samantha 2 project’s private fleet. As they eat a picnic lunch in a secluded churchyard, Elgin tears up as he confesses how worried he is about Bernadette. Soo-Lin takes his hand and tells him about her own divorce and her involvement with a self-help group, VAV (Victims Against Victimhood). Elgin brings the subject back to Bernadette and reveals that he has opted out of all Galer Street School email lists and is unaware of recent events, including the Prospective Parent Brunch, the billboard, and the mudslide.