It’s tough to write this without spending all my time comparing this to Bernadette. Maria Semple is extremely talented at creating complicated, sympathetic, but frustrating women for her lead characters, but even more impressive is how she writes mental illness in a realistic way. Both Eleanor and Bernadette are often pretty crappy mothers or friends, but tremendously fun to hang out with anyway. This plays out more like a farce than Bernadette did, and while I know Semple is a very good comedy writer I think that it got a little too free-wheely for my taste at least, and it lost some of its focus midway. However it’s a great second book and with enough difference from Bernadette that Semple’s shown she can do more than just one thing. Can’t wait until she comes out with her third.