Rating: 
Summary: This Book Is S-A-T-I-S-F-A-C-T-O-R-Y, Satisfactory
Review: Bee Season is a pretty good first novel for Myla Goldberg. As a husband and father, the book definately made me think about family life. Underachieving fifth-grade student, Eliza Naumann, wins her school speeling, um, that's spelling, bee, and the book takes off from there. Eventually, little Elly makes it to the National Spelling Bee, taking her father, Saul, along with her for the ride. Up to this point, he hadn't really taken a big interest in her life, but now, he devotes all of his time to her, and pretty much, only her. Things go from bad to worse for the family, as her brother, Aaron, gives up on Judaism to become a Hare Krishna, and the mother, Miriam, completely falls apart (Actually, you have to read it to truly see how far she falls). The book moves along really fast, and flows so nicely at the beginning. The language is good, and the humor, although quite subtle, is mixed in rather well. The characters probably could have used a little more development, though. In all honesty, the book dragged on slightly at the end, as the story became fairly dry. The ending is unexpected to the reader, but, in hindsight, it seems pretty obvious to me that Goldberg wrote the novel with that ending in mind from the very start. Overall, I thought it was a decent novel, and one worth reading, as it dealt with many topical issues that could happen to almost anyone. Goldberg easily left the door open for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Get your first edition while you still can...
Review: Myla Goldberg's surefooted debut novel describes how a surprise gift -- 5th grade Eliza's genius for spelling -- disrupts the fragile balance of a modern American family. The Naumann family seems to possess the requisite characteristics of what our society views as ideal: two children (boy and girl), two parents (one of which is home when the children are), dedication to a religion, a healthy income, and family dinners shared around the kitchen table. When Eliza wins the school spelling bee, and the rest of the family discovers she is not the under-achiever they've resigned her to being, a clataclysm is set into motion. Goldberg deftly handles themes of parental expectations, sibling rivalry, and fanaticism (religious and otherwise) with humor and pathos. "Bee Season" will stay in your thoughts long after you've put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Family life not at its best!
Review: A funny thing happened to me as I read Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. While I really looked forward to reading this book after hearing so many favorable reviews and while the pages turned themselves at the beginning, midway through, I began to dislike almost everything about this title. As a lover of words and a practicing Jew, somewhat familiar with Kabbalah studies, I found this tale ultimately so depressing and the family so out of touch with everything around them, that this became a most uncomfortable read. And lest you think I shy away from uncomfortable reads, this isn't usually the case if I see some merit to the read. Somehow this book left me feeling out of sorts and perhaps that was what the author intended. Most of all, though, I never really felt anything for the characters, especially the mother. How could a woman keep from her husband that she hasn't worked as a lawyer for 10 years but spends her days instead acquiring objects? Does her husband Saul really know so little about family members that he doesn't see whats happening around him when his wife isn't at work? Or that his son is spending time away from theit home and in a Hare Krishnah Temple? Or that he expects something from his daughter which she really isn't capable of doing? While I found the premise of this book, how an 11 year old special education student begins winning more and more competitive spelling bees and the effect this has on her family, interesting, it just wasn't enough to explain all that happened to them afterwards. Instead of providing me with a good read, instead, all I can think about is what does happen to this young woman who has experienced some fame, and what happens to her brother who used to share a speical time with his father then reserved for his sister and most of all what happens to the father when he no longer has a favorite to invite into his study. I will say that the subject matter was thought provoking and the writing kept me going long after I wanted to close this book even if the theme didn't. But I just found it too depressing and too unlikely. I will be curious to see what Myla Goldberg will write about in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't judge a book by it's cover...
Review: This book got great reviews, so I wanted very much to like it. I stuck with it till the end, although I was skimming by the last third. The author's youth is evident in the character's lack of development beyond the stereotypical way that an adolescents believe they fully - and condescendingly - understand their parents. The endless switching between 4 one-dimensional characters, none of whom has a single friend or interest beyond the one passion attributed to them by the novel, quickly loses the reader's interest. Goldberg is a talented but undeveloped author. The credit for much of the success of this book should in all fairness go to the person who did the jacket design, which appeals to the reader's nostalgia.
Rating: 
Summary: It is funny, too!
Review: The book is so readable and so insightful that to have a sleepless night with it is a delight! I had a residue feeling though that the author withholds more that she reveals; to reach more readers Myla feels obliged to cut corners; to be heard by readers she is too loud in a very subtle places, to avoid excessive erudition she knowingly diminishes the complexity of many serious topics. Very understandable desire to touch lives with the writer's fire, but readers are smarter than many writers assume, they could be trusted to complete revelations of any depths. My only advice to Myla: When time comes to tell the whole truth, please, do not hesitate to do so and do not underestimate your readers. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: A missed opportunity.
Review: I must preface my review with the fact that my daughter and I met the author at the National Spelling Bee in 1997. She interviewed us briefly. Both my daughter and I competed (there was a parents' bee back then). Therefore, I was looking forward to this book with great anticipation. Unfortunately, Ms. Goldberg's "Bee Season" is little more than a book about an extremely dysfunctional family. The Naumanns are out of touch with themselves and with one another--so much so, that they come across as caricatures rather than as human beings. The Naumann family consists of two children, Aaron and Eliza, and their parents, Miriam and Saul. Each of these people has a secret life, which is very different from the face that he or she shows to the world. In a florid and overwritten style, Goldberg describes both the inner and outer worlds of the Naumanns. However, the story never gels into a coherent narrative. Goldberg mixes in plot elements about the Kabbalah, cults, obsessive compulsive disorder, and spelling bees. I never grew to care very much about the Naumanns and I gained no real insight into the human condition after having read this book. If Goldberg had tried to tackle less, perhaps she would have accomplished more.
Rating: 
Summary: How do you spell insane?
Review: Goldberg has a very readable style, and were just one of the four main characters in this book strange beyond belief, the story might work. But, even allowing for family dynamics, four total whack jobs? Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that I actually finished the book. Not sure why.
Rating:
Summary: Immature and overwrought
Review: Myla Goldberg has taken on a topic that she is emotionally too young to carry. While philosophically, as she explores the Kabbalah, she is quite brilliant, Goldberg has clearly not had enough life experience to solidly portray a dysfunctional family rotting from the inside. Her touch of brilliance is the ending, where the entire theme of the book becomes most apparent. Father Saul has in fact destroyed his entire family in his need to have them excel. Her portrayal of the lost mother does not ring true. Having known madness in a professional and personal way, Goldberg's portrayal of Miriam lacks the sweat and tears of real madness. Compare this novel to David Leavitt's Family Dancing, written when he was quite young. When reading Leavitt's novel, I was shocked by his grasp of life, of emotional depths, of adulthood. Goldberg's view of the family shows her immaturity. As the mother of a gifted 13-year-old, I know full well that no 9-or-10-year-old child could fully digest and read all that Elly, the child in this book, can read and assimilate. Impossible, even for a bright child. The family's dysfunction through the entire novel feels badly contrived, as though they were the imaginings of a young woman who has never had two children, one adolescent, one pre-adolescent. And in fact, she hasn't. In dramatic scenes in this book, the lack of Goldberg's worldliness shows when she overdramatizes. In all, this book's real impact is at the end, and I often grew quite impatient with the book, which clearly was written with the ending in mind. The characters don't ring true, nor does their dialogue. Though this book was highly touted, I disagree with all who thought it brilliant. I don't recommend it. Not everyone who writes a decent first novel is necessarily gifted with a monumental debut.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, wrenching, fascinating, and subtle
Review: How wonderfully Myla Goldberg's novel resonates with the reader! Eliza's rocky path to self-realization also illuminates the lives of those closest to her: her father, Saul; her mother, Miriam, and her quietly affecting older brother, Aaron, whose dissatisfaction with Judaism leads him to turn to Eastern religion like a ship pushing toward light on a dark sea. For its careful unfolding of immensely complex ideas, its playful love of language, and its serious scholarship, Bee Seasons finds deserved company among Diane Ackerman's treatise, A Natural History of the Senses. These kinships are all the more remarkable because Goldberg weaves them so seamlessly throughout a work of fiction. The pages disappear as easily as snowflakes on the tongue, but the motivations behind Eliza's determination, Saul's thirst for knowledge, Miriam's elborate secrecy, and Aaron's desperation will indeed leave you feeling that you have "eaten a large meal" by the end. Despite how much this novel offers in the way of learning, the most searing aspects are the vastly different relationships within Eliza's family, all of which deepen and complicate along with her initiation into the realm of higher-level spelling bees. She blossoms under constant tutelage, finding a once-unachievable place within her cerebral father's affections. Eliza's ultimate, life-defining choice, propelled by both the rewards and consequences of her gift, reflects an understanding of the tenous certainties that come with familal love. She must sense what Saul once thinks at the sight of her onstage, about to spell a word he's sure she has wrong: "Quick. Open your eyes. This is what I look like when I still believe in you."
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable experience
Review: This is a remarkable book on many levels. The writing is extraordinary. The characters are compelling. And the themes -- the sacred aspects of the small moments of everyday life, the need for the love of a family, the desire to communicate with God -- are portrayed with an intensity that requires one to read the book in small portions, like a fine meal that cannot be consumed too quickly. It a brilliant debut for a young writer and a richly rewarding experience.
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