Where'd You Go, Bernadette
question
Issue with the MAJOR ERROR at the End of the Story [Warning: Spoilers!]
Apple
Apr 18, 2017 08:16PM
[Warning: this has MAJOR SPOILERS in it! Don't read any further if you don't want the ending of the book spoiled!]
So I was super excited to read and finish this excellent book. I loved it, save for one major problem that seems to have been overlooked on the internet (or I just haven't found it discussed yet). I've racked my brain and pored over the book for an easily explainable reason for the problem, but alas, I found no explanation. The problem remains. Let me know if you can resolve it for me... I need resolution!
I'll explain the problem:
The letter at the end of the book is supposedly the ACTUAL "missing letter from Mom". It BEGINS with "I write to you from a shipping container in Antarctica..." which happens AFTER she has left the cruise ship for good. So HOW do those words START her letter? The imprint of words from the letter are mentioned, so we KNOW the letter was started IN the room. Did she somehow FORETELL she would be in that final position? NO. It's an error.
I first thought, she started the letter in the room and brought it with her to mail. But then, it would still NOT have started that way. Had Semple simply taken that first sentence OUT of the final letter, OR named the letter, "Mom's recreation of the missing letter" THEN it would have WORKED. Instead, she opens a letter she presumably wrote on the ship with stuff that happened way after she left the ship, with no written indication that she had added it later TO the letter.
It's annoying. The timeline of this letter is WRONG. It's a glaring error at the end of the book.
I can't find it mentioned anywhere else... anyone else see what i'm saying here? Can you explain it away for me? It's sooo annoying!
So I was super excited to read and finish this excellent book. I loved it, save for one major problem that seems to have been overlooked on the internet (or I just haven't found it discussed yet). I've racked my brain and pored over the book for an easily explainable reason for the problem, but alas, I found no explanation. The problem remains. Let me know if you can resolve it for me... I need resolution!
I'll explain the problem:
The letter at the end of the book is supposedly the ACTUAL "missing letter from Mom". It BEGINS with "I write to you from a shipping container in Antarctica..." which happens AFTER she has left the cruise ship for good. So HOW do those words START her letter? The imprint of words from the letter are mentioned, so we KNOW the letter was started IN the room. Did she somehow FORETELL she would be in that final position? NO. It's an error.
I first thought, she started the letter in the room and brought it with her to mail. But then, it would still NOT have started that way. Had Semple simply taken that first sentence OUT of the final letter, OR named the letter, "Mom's recreation of the missing letter" THEN it would have WORKED. Instead, she opens a letter she presumably wrote on the ship with stuff that happened way after she left the ship, with no written indication that she had added it later TO the letter.
It's annoying. The timeline of this letter is WRONG. It's a glaring error at the end of the book.
I can't find it mentioned anywhere else... anyone else see what i'm saying here? Can you explain it away for me? It's sooo annoying!
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I think Semple offers a way out of this. Earlier in the book, in the report from the forensic document examiner, several phrases from the imprint on the pad are identified:
"Audrey Griffin is the devil."
"Audrey Griffin is an angel."
"Romeo, Romeo"
"I am a Christian."
"Audrey knows."
They add that the name Audrey Griffin appears six times. Scrutinizing the actual letter, unless I'm missing something, only the first two phrases appear and these are the only mentions of Audrey. So this appears to be an earlier version of a letter that was abandoned after Bernadette gets on the freighter. One can speculate on the "Romeo, Romeo:" Audrey rescues Bernadette by climbing a ladder to a window in her house. It's not a real balcony, but that's how Bernadette fancifully describes it in her letter. In the first draft, she was obviously going for a Shakespeare reference in describing the scene, but in the version that was sent she drops it, probably not needing snark any longer owing to her finding a purpose at the South Pole. The "I am a Christian" is what Audrey (quoting herself in the fax to her husband) gives as the reason for helping Bernadette, but this is also not in the final letter.
So clearly these are two distinct documents. This reading does require one deductive leap I don't much like, which is that Bernadette for whatever reason destroyed the first version. She did not take it with her when leaving the cruise ship because that was a spur of the moment decision. (But people discard drafts of letters all the time.)
Case closed?
"Audrey Griffin is the devil."
"Audrey Griffin is an angel."
"Romeo, Romeo"
"I am a Christian."
"Audrey knows."
They add that the name Audrey Griffin appears six times. Scrutinizing the actual letter, unless I'm missing something, only the first two phrases appear and these are the only mentions of Audrey. So this appears to be an earlier version of a letter that was abandoned after Bernadette gets on the freighter. One can speculate on the "Romeo, Romeo:" Audrey rescues Bernadette by climbing a ladder to a window in her house. It's not a real balcony, but that's how Bernadette fancifully describes it in her letter. In the first draft, she was obviously going for a Shakespeare reference in describing the scene, but in the version that was sent she drops it, probably not needing snark any longer owing to her finding a purpose at the South Pole. The "I am a Christian" is what Audrey (quoting herself in the fax to her husband) gives as the reason for helping Bernadette, but this is also not in the final letter.
So clearly these are two distinct documents. This reading does require one deductive leap I don't much like, which is that Bernadette for whatever reason destroyed the first version. She did not take it with her when leaving the cruise ship because that was a spur of the moment decision. (But people discard drafts of letters all the time.)
Case closed?
Hark! The Internet wins again! I just finished the book and was about to hate it bc of this exact "discrepancy!" I had started to consider they were two different letters - b/c as stated - no Romeo in the "second" - but I needed a little push. Semple did that on purpose? Twisted! I don't much like the deductive leap either but maybe it's fitting. Thanks!
PS My Google search was "where did you go bernadette is the missing letter the one she wrote on the cruise ship"
PS My Google search was "where did you go bernadette is the missing letter the one she wrote on the cruise ship"
Larry, by jove, I think you've got it! Keen eye! Thanks for the insight, I never saw that angle.
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