Home :: Books :: Audiocassettes  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes

Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Bee Season

Bee Season

List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $20.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 .. 25 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could...
Review: I'm not sure what to think about this book, but here goes: I think that Myla Goldberg is a helluva writer, a definite 'big new talent'. 'Bee Season' kept surprising me, starting out somewhat light, but getting continually darker as the story moved on. I didn't particularly like the ending, but that's just my personal opinion, although I found some of what Eliza experienced (mentally) to be a bit hard to accept as well, even in the context of the book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: come on now
Review: i bought this book based on the reviews that I read along the way. It sounded like an interesting story by a gifted writer. I was slow to buy into it and gave it a few chances before I put it back on my shelf in the unfinished section. The bottom line was dear old mom, I just couldn't buy her story....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Myla Goldberg is a genius
Review: Myla Goldberg is a genius. The quality of the writing in this book is unbelievable. Her skill at weaving words together is astounding.

Her ability to imagine these characters and paint them with the sharpest of details is beyond impressive. Goldberg's understanding of the psycholgical complexities of human beings, and her skill at conveying those complexities to the reader is also remarkable.

Bee Season is also very very depressive. As such, it is painfully honest. This is an outstanding first novel, I enjoyed reading every page of it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book is a wonderful exploration of family relationships. Goldberg uses the spelling/mystical talents of Eliza to weave an introspective and moving tale of a family being torn apart. The characters have stunning depth. I could bearly wait to turn each page to find out how Eliza's talents will manifest themselves, how her brother, Aaron, will find religious satisfaction, and how her mother and father find means of escaping emotional connection to each other. One of the best books I've ever read!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bee Season is a Honey of a Book!
Review: This book is a real page turner. I gave it to my husband, who is not a reader, and he could not put it down.

The book is about a dysfunctional Jewish family. Each character in the book: mother, father, daughter, and son, are seeking God, but in very different ways. The mother is a kleptomaniac, who believes that she is restoring the perfection of the world by finding "lost" items, only by finding them and putting them in their rightful place will she find peace. The father seeks God in ancient Kabbalistic texts, but the Kabbalah is like one of those mazes where when you think you are closest to the center you are actually farthest away. He is frustrated because he keeps taking the wrong turn. The son, rebelling against his father, looks for God in other religions, Catholicism, Buddihism, etc. but like many immature seekers mistakes fellowship and acceptance for faith. Only the daughter with her pure heart is able to seek and find God.

Follow each character on their journey. You may not agree with the paths each one chooses. Some readers may have difficulty with some of the Kabbalistic concepts as they are not explained as thoroughly as they might be.

The book underscores the hunger within each of us to find and be close to our Creator.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sad but fascinating
Review: "Bee Season" refers, ostensibly, to the season of spelling bees. The central character is Eliza, whose family questions her intelligence but who wins the school, district, and state spelling bees before heading to national. It is at this point that Saul, her scholar father, begins to pay attention to her. But this attention is to the detriment of Eliza's brother, Aaron, the former apple of his father's eye who begins to turn his attention to the practice of the local Hari Krishna's as he questions his own Jewishness.

It is difficult to sum this novel up--Eliza's spelling prowess begins to mirror her own questioning of her religion, and her quest for religious enlightenment. There are also strong, very difficult family dynamics at play here--Saul is clearly uncapable of paying attention to both his children, and Miriam, the mother, is a cypher. Her story, in particular, will keep you fascinated and ultimately horrified throughout.

This is not a particularly uplifting novel, but it will keep you turning the pages. How far will Eliza go to earn her father's respect, and will she realize that she is fulfilling his dream instead of hers? What will become of Aaron and Miriam?

There is much more than meets the eye here. Goldberg combines a story of family dynamics and one of religious quests expertly. You will be sad after reading this (there IS a ray of hope at the end, though, in my opinion), but you will be enriched by the experience.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: overwrought, fractured picture of flawed family falls short
Review: I cannot join the rhapsodic praise Myla Goldberg's debut novel, "Bee Season" has gathered. Ambitious and interesting, this symbolic novel fails to cohere; it is one of those works where the whole is much less than the sum of the parts. Told in alternating voices (in sections ranging from one to five pages), "Bee Season" bravely attempts to analyze the nature of the American Dream, religious transcendence and the quest for personal authenticity. Goldberg's insights are not without merit, and it is clear, both from the language chosen and the felicity of style, that the author deserves praise both for her goals and effort. Nevertheless, by novel's end, I was left with a deep feeling of betrayal and a sense of incompletion.

"Bee Season" revolves around the sudden, inexplicable ability of nine-year-old Eliza Naumann to spell. Suddenly, the forgotten member of this archtypical upper-middle-class Jewish American household becomes the focus, if not of the novel, then certainly of her father's repressed yearning for a child which will gain access to personal, social and familial fulfillment. Unfortunately, Eliza's success is the catalyst to family catastrophy, and Goldberg's greatest achievement is the terrifying description of family dissolution.

Repressed grievances and suppressed yearnings blossom. Saul, Eliza's father, abandons his son and completely devotes himself to Eliza's spelling. Only slowly do we come to understand the ulterior motives behind the father's fascination with his daughter. She represents a chance for Saul to overcome his failures -- personal, familial and religious -- as he begins to perceive his daughter as the once-in-a-lifetime student who not only can spell, but receive the mysterious and liberating message of letters themselves. Eliza, thus, becomes Saul's portal to Jewish mysticism. Saul, however, does not need to reach that deeply to find a family that has its own mystical qualities. His son, Aaron, abandons Judaism in favor of Krisha consciousness. His wife, the icy Miriam, falls apart after a lifetime of covert theft; a symbol of her childhood, a kaleidescope, becomes an awful metaphor for a wasted adulthood.

The flaws of "Bee Season" keep it from being a remarkable book. First off, Goldberg inexplicably uses four poins of view in the novel and never allows any one voice or perspective to interpret events. This decision gives her novel a choppy, disjointed feel. In addition, her decision to bounce back and forth between voices detes any genuine identification or personal investment in any of the characters. Secondly, Goldberg is not successful in having "Bee Season" be a vehicle for a discussion of the central themes of of the novel. Primarily an analysis of personal, religious transcendence and understanding, the novel spends far too much time on Eliza's journey through local, regional and national spelling competitions. Had Goldberg focused on that aspect of the novel, she would have created a biting, ironic satire of the illusory nature of the American Dream and a devastating commentary on the costs of competition. Finally, Goldberg does not allow enough time for Miriam's character to develop. While I understand the need for secrecy (the novel has an obligatory surprise ending), Miriam remains remote throughout the novel, and her distance and its effects on her mate, Saul, and her children are never accorded the time or space necessary for development.

Flawed though it may be, "Bee Season" announces the arrival of a fresh voice in American literature. I am confident that Myla Goldberg will not make the same mistakes in her next effort.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Title is Wrong
Review: I read _Bee Season_ several months ago, and I hesitated to review it until I had actually discussed it with someone else. However, that hasn't happened as of yet. So I am therefore attempting to review this remarkable novel. Myla Goldberg's first novel is exceptional in many ways. If literature is meant to cause the reader to stop and evaluate life and its many varied situations, then this is truly great literature. The problem I have with the title is that it is deceptive. As a high school English teacher, I constantly seek new literature that will capture my students imaginations. This novel is far too complex for the majority of high school students. As an adult reader, I was fascinated with the tales of Jewish mysticism and the extraordinary gift of the young protagonist. This is definitely a novel worth reading and talking about.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Cardboard characters
Review: The premise sounded good but halfway through, like some other readers, I started to skim. There was too much going on that ultimately, was never resolved. There was virtually no character development, especially for the mother. The 'words permuting through her head' was just plain weird. And of course, as have the last 8 'popular' books I've read, the 'f' appeared. Gotta work it in somewhere or no one will buy your book. This book read like a first year college paper - would have gotten a 'C' if my prof had graded it. This *had* to have been an Oprah book.

The ending had a nice twist with her misspelling her bee word but what happened to Mom? Aaron? The family unit? Oh, that's right, here in 2001 we have to remain dysfunctional to fit into society.

From now on I'm going to start reading books that the majority of readers gave one star.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Would you repeat the word, please."
Review: I can't think of a more boring pasttime than listening to kids spell. I know this because, as a Language Arts teacher, I have had to judge spelling bees for a lot of years. So, naturally I was drawn to this book wondering how an author could launch a story from such an unpromising topic. I was pleased and surprised by just how much I enjoyed this novel, peopled by such interesting and complex characters. A rather heavy dose of Jewish mysticism bogged the story down from time to time, but mostly this was an intriguing read. An added bonus is you get to pick up some rather obscure words to add to your spelling lexicon, just in case you are ever tempted to relive your youth and enter a spelling competition.


<< 1 .. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 .. 25 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates