Rating: 
Summary: A Frightening Descent into Madness
Review: Bee Season is the story of the unraveling of a family which was clinging together by the barest of threads, with two parents so engrossed in their own obsessions that they listened but never heard. We have Aaron, the older brother, who is consistently bullied at school and feels at peace only at the Jewish temple where his father, Saul, is the cantor. Saul has created a world for himself in his tiny study full of books from which her emerges only to cook dinner for the family as his wife, Miriam, is not the domestic type. Miriam, meanwhile, is haunted by her quest to reach Perfectimundo, a state in which everything is perfectly clean, sterile, and in its correct place. And then there's Eliza, who is tracked as a lower-achieving student in second grade and manages to float through life on a cload of after-school sitcoms, achieiving nothing out of the ordinary until she rockets to the national spelling bee in fifth grade. What follows is the family's gradual collapse, helped along by Aaron's decision to find God in the Hare Krishna faith, Miriam's schitzophrenic kleptomania, and Saul's newlyfound belief that his daughter can be trained to become a direct link to God based on her talents with letters. Eliza, thrilled at the prospect of her father finally noticed her, plays along until the bitter end when everything snaps. Bee Season is gutwrenching and by its end, makes the reader feel like he might have descended into the darkness that this family inhabits. Goldberg is a gifted writer, and I look forward to reading more of her work, if perhaps of a more optimistic slant.
Rating: 
Summary: absorbing, esoteric, culturally complex
Review: After completing this book I heard it summarized as "Jewish mysticism". While that is in part an accurate characterization and the story's core, this very complicated novel transcends that description. However, I think one will need to re-read it several times in order to appreciate its complex symbolism and meaning. This is a sophisticated novel which warrants careful reading in order to savor its nuances and simply the careful, brilliant skill of its author.Besides the culturally specific references, surely esoteric even for most Jewish readers, this is a story of narrowly defined scholarship and tightly wound intellect which ultimately manifests itself in manic, aberrant behavior. The juxdaposing of Judaism with the Hari Krishna movement is intriguing. While I appreciated the observations on the use of faith to search for purpose I do not believe I fully comprehended the meaning the author was attempting to convey via this specific comparison (unless simply that of perhaps the ultimate of contrasts). This would be a terrific assignment for a particularly cerebral and sophisticated book group. I look forward to discussing it with friends once they have read it.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Myla Goldberg's use of language in this book is to me, unforgettable. She used that language to describe a family whose relationships to each other seemed so delicate, when done reading at night I found myself gently placing the book on the nightstand beside me for fear of disturbing them. It seemed to me that this was a quiet family--I imagined their house to be one where only whispers could be heard. Yet, inevitably, each member of the family has a voice, a method of expression which is transcendent and beautiful. I don't want to give away a thing. This is a lovely book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Review: The book starts slow, however picks up quickly and had me hooked. The development of the characters is excellent and there are many different levels to the book. The concept of not having chapters is interesting and adds to the quality of the book. It is a remarkable first book. I am looking forward to upcoming books by Goldberg. Makes a great read for a bookclub.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the most fantastic book I have ever read!
Review: This book was incredible. Myla Goldberg's metaphors for life as spoken through the thoughts of her characters were so true, so genius. I cannot believe that this is just her first book! I feel like I have reached a new level of understanding through this book. I don't know what to say but READ IT!
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: There are aspects of the book that are enjoyable and funny, but I find the charcter development, such as the "world weariness" and attraction to mysticism of Elly, the main character to be implausible, as is the transformation of her father, Saul, from being a voracious womanizer in his college years to a "sensitive" Torah-oriented mensch in fatherhood. I really don't understand what Saul and Miriam, Elly's mother, saw in each other to begin with. Saul is some kind of masochist, seeing as how Miriam never gave anything to the relationship. Elly's brother Aaron seems to be the most realistic of the characters and one can understand his joining the Hare Krishna sect. It is also unclear to me whether the climax of the book is about Elly's self-determination, rebellion or descent into madness. Having said that, I reiterate that there are wonderful moments in this book and it is still worth reading. I agree with other reviewers that it is a decent first novel. I really have to kick myself because I missed a chance to meet the author in person, thereby depriving myself of the opportunity to raise some of the questions raised in this series of reviews.
Rating:
Summary: A Sortasorta Book
Review: The story was sorta compelling, sorta depresssing, sorta funny, sorta nostalgic. At the beginning, I thought, "Aha! A girl just like I was at that age..." But I soon found that wasn't so, as Eliza entered into a world of mysticism that I never knew and never plan to seek. The writing is beautiful and most of the metaphors insightful and wonderfully descriptive. I found the characters just didn't come to life for me, especially the mother, and I thoroughly disliked both parents, who are shallow and self centered. The author needed to tell the reader why they are that way, to tell us more about their lives. I found the author's habit of jumping from the present to the past, in short bursts, quite disconcerting. My Book Club will be discussing this one in early March and I can hardly wait to hear what the others in the group thought. I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn't quite understand the ending. I'll be eager to hear more about that too. This book may be easier for a Jewish person to understand, as some of its references were lost on me.
Rating:
Summary: I was oddly compelled...
Review: I became interested in this book after watching the national spelling bee on tv. I got completely wrapped up from the first chapter. The section where we reach the climax of Mirium's secret is something I still find myself reading over and over. That was the most amazing plot twist ever. This is one novel, that in the right director's hands, would make a really beautifully filmed movie.
Rating:
Summary: Fine Debut
Review: (Really 3.5) The "buzz" from other Amazon readers sparked my interest in this book. Because I am from the area where this book is set, I had to wait 3 months to get it from the library. Sadly, it was not work the wait. At times, this book is beautifully written. In some parts the writing is so lyrical, and honest that I reread passages out loud to myself. Sadly, I thought that Goldberg never really did her characters justice. Poor little Eliza, there is such promise for her at the beginning, but Goldberg uses her as a vehicle, just as her family does. Also, I simply do not believe that this child went from repeated watchings of "Three's Company" to becoming an intrepid and gifted mystic (why does this child not tremble at the thought of God?). Although the writing about her mystical experiences is fantastic at times, the changes that Eliza goes through simply do not ring true. Thus, her character is almost completely used as a symbol by the middle of the book. She ceases to be a little girl who feels left out of her family because she is not the gifted child they desire. I was actually sad that her character developed in this way. Another problem with the book is that there is too much going on. By having all of the characters go through such a dramatic transformation, but not really seeing the effect on each other until the end, the story seems even more unbelievable. It also makes the book seem fragmented and causes the novel to become dull and laborious at times. This is a shame because obviously, Goldberg not only has fantastic things to tell us, she clearly has a gift for story telling. This was a great first novel, and yes, I would still recommend it. I look forward to reading Goldberg's work in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Too too much
Review: While I liked the pieces of this book, there was just too much going on with too many characters for me to get truly enthralled. An elementary schoolgirl communing with God, her 17 year old brother converting from Judaism to Hare Krishna, and her mother living a secret life of crime--any one or two of these stories would have been interesting. But taken together in a not-too-hefty novel, they didn't allow for terrific character development. Although Myla Goldberg is clearly a gifted author, I felt like she bit off more than she could chew with this story.
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