
It’s not easy to write, convincingly and compellingly, in the voice of a genius. Maria Semple writes in the voices of three geniuses: Elgar, an arch-programmer for Microsoft; Bernadette, a wunderkind architect who abandoned the field for homemaking and long-term depression; and Bee, their daughter, who has the intellect of a rocket scientist and the emotions and issues of a 15-year-old girl, which is what she is. When Bee’s overwrought mother has a breakdown and disappears, and her underwrought father has trouble focusing on the reality of what’s happening, it’s up to Bee to solve the mystery and pull her family back together.