A hot summer read that was written right here

A blurb on the jacket couldn’t be more enticing: “I tore through this book with heedless pleasure.”

A blurb on the jacket couldn’t be more enticing: “I tore through this book with heedless pleasure.”

That’s what bestselling novelist Jonathan Franzen had to say about Maria Semple’s new novel, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” — a book that was penned on Vashon.

Semple, who lives in Seattle but spends summers and weekends at a beach house in Burton, will give a reading of the book this Friday at Vashon Bookshop — a chance for Islanders to meet a funny, talented and accomplished writer who fell in love with Vashon at first sight almost four years ago.

Reached by phone in New York City during the hectic launch week of her book, Semple described how she and her boyfriend had felt an instant connection to the Island soon after moving to the Pacific Northwest from Los Angeles, where Semple wrote for such shows as “Arrested Development,” “Mad About You” and “Ellen.”

“We got off the ferry, and during the first drive up the hill, we both turned to each other and said ‘This is it,’” she said. “I got into the groove of Vashon much quicker than I did in Seattle.”

The novel, delivered up by Semple in a patchwork mix of memos, emails, journal entries and other epistolary exchanges, tells the story of Berna-dette Fox, a brilliant but off-kilter mother of a level-headed teenager, Bee, who is left to solve the mystery of Bernadette’s sudden disappearance.

Like Semple, the character of Bernadette is a recent transplant to Seattle, and her ragged transition to living in the Emerald City provides much of the comic grist of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette.”

The character, Semple admitted, sprang from her own experience of culture shock after moving to Seattle — a place where she said “everyone seemed to take an instant dislike to me.”

The book, published by Little, Brown and Co., has won raves from critics nationwide.

“Think ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ in Seattle,” said Time magazine reviewer Lev Grossman.

People Magazine called the book “an uproarious comedy of manners,” and NPR Books described it as “the year’s most anticipated comic novel.”

And despite the fact that the book provides a wicked skewering of Seattle’s eccentricities, Semple said much of it was written on Vashon — a place she adores.

Describing how she wrote “Bernadette” at a beautiful writing desk in her Burton home, Semple said that “this book to me will always say Vashon — the beach, the birds, the beautiful skies.”

So might her next novel be set on Vashon? When asked, Semple laughed.

“I don’t know if you want a novel from me set on Vashon,” she said. “Maybe. I’m not thinking about my next novel yet, but if inspiration strikes at the Burton Coffee Stand, you never know.”

 

Maria Semple will read from “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” at 6 p.m. Friday at the Vashon Bookshop.