Rating: 
Summary: A Look Into the Life Of A Troubled Family...
Review: I read this book back in May of 2000 and I still think about its characters. Initially I thought it was a book about religious obsession, but eventually decided I was wrong, and that instead it was a book about transcendence. As the reader, you are taken on a painful journey and into the lives of the dysfunctional Naumann family. You literally experience their unraveling. This is an unsettling story -- one that gives you a glimpse into the world(s) of spelling bees (the descriptions were brilliant), Hare Krishnas (makes you reconsider "moonies") , and surreal images (remember Miriam's storage shed?!). This is impressive work for a first time writer. I look forward to Myla Goldberg's next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a pleasurable book.
Review: I agree with the others here who have said they expected something very different from this book. I expected a fairly straightforward novel about a young girl who becomes a spelling champion - a "coming of age" story possibly. I was interested in the emphasis on language, because I have always been good at language and spelling myself. However, now that I have read 3/4 of this book, I've found that I don't relate to it at all. It seems to become more extreme and unbelievable with each page I read. It is not about a normal girl who goes to spelling bees, or even about a troubled girl who goes to spelling bees. It is about the religious obsessions of her father and brother, and the even stranger obsessions of her mother. Maybe I would understand this book more if I were more interested in religion. A book doesn't have to be about characters that are just like me, but I generally enjoy a book more when I can relate to the characters or when they appeal to me in some way. I will read the whole book, because I want to find out what happens to this bizarre family in the end. But I can't say that reading it has been exactly pleasurable.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful storytelling
Review: This is the kind of book that should be winning the major literary awards for its unexpectedly moving plot and unusual characters. Ostensibly about a nine-year-old girl who wins a spelling bee at her school, Bee Season turns into an entire family's quest for God, for order, or for something they can hold onto that makes sense. With unwavering prose, Goldberg examines the Naumann family members closely, uncovering their psychological and spiritual drives without judgment as their mundane life veers off in quite surprising directions. The book is thoroughly original and charming, but edgy, never sentimental.
Rating: 
Summary: very enjoyable
Review: i found this book very entertaining, and the writing is excellent. i read it in one sitting because i was so engrossed in the plot. its an intense story but one that is fun and easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: author needed to know how to spell "editor"
Review: Myla Goldberg is very talented, but she needs an editor. The book begins well and stays on track UNTIL the girl's mother de-rails the plot. Had an attentive editor counseled the author to forget about making the mother a kleptomaniac, the book would have worked as well or better.The characters, except for the mother, were honest and true. The mother was unbelievable; had no reason for being. It seemed as if the author had made her up out of whole cloth in order to keep the book "interesting" and colorful. In fact, the mother was distracting and undermined the book's intention. Myla Goldberg is, however, clearly someone to watch. This is an impressive and beautifully written first novel. She can obviously write; what she most needs to do is find an editor.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I completely agree with another reviewer that the book starts strong and then meanders into chaos. I had great difficulty finishing the book, because, by the end, I didn't care about these characters.
Rating:
Summary: I had no idea
Review: I expected the book to be a whimsical tale offering a peek into the world of spelling bees. Although it begin this way, it spirals into something far too heavy for its own good.
Rating:
Summary: Like is not a conjunction.
Review: I would have appreciated this book more had the author stuck to the conventional rules for using "like." Every time she used "like" as a conjunction, I shuddered. All this shuddering distracted me from whatever merits the book may have had.
Rating:
Summary: Extensive detail to each character...and I LOVED THE ENDING!
Review: Bee Season is not your typical novel, nor does it contain your typical characters. For that reason alone, I applaud it. Too many times, we as readers are subjected to formulaic and predictable plots that make us "feel good" and get an "Oh, I see the point" type of reaction. Too many times we allow the author to read for us, and to spell out in HUGE letters what the point is. I for one, enjoy a little ambiguity once in a while, and like to walk away from the book contemplating just what message the author intended to convey. Bee Season is such a novel. I thought the characters were extremely well-written, and found each to have layers of complexity. Myla did a tremendous job in this regard. Sure the plot dried up at certain points, but a page or two later, would be refreshed again. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys challenging themselves as a reader. A tremendous effort for a first book. Well done, Myla.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: An extremely impressive first novel! What seems, at first, to be a simple story about an underachieving daughter growing up in a household with a distracted mother and a distant father who dotes on the older son becomes, in fact, a complex and philosophical novel about family, religion, language, and perfection. This is not conventional storytelling. It is engrossing and thought-provoking. Sad and frustrating in the way that dysfunctional families can be. I look forward to future novels by Goldberg.
|
