Rating: 
Summary: a real literary find
Review: Let me start off by saying that I loved this book from start to finish. It's The Chosen for adults. It's hard to believe that this is the author's first novel. You will be totally drawn in by Eliza, the 9 year old who does not get tagged for the gifted and talented class like her older brother who does everything well, or so it seems. On the surface, this is a normal, intellectual Jewish family, but underneath, there are problems all around. I think the comparison with American Beauty is apt -- all is not well in suburbia. What makes this a literary work rather than just another good novel is the profound Kabbalistic tie in of the Tikkan Olan -- a kind of divine light. Once the broken pieces are put together, a certain level of mystic knowledge and proximity to God takes place. Some critics didn't like the side stories: Miriam, the mother and her mental breakdown, the brother and his seduction into the Hare Krishas, but what makes this book so absorbing is that all the characters are striving to find enlightenment in whatever way they can. While Eliza follows the Kabbalistic trail of spelling and letter combinations and permutations, her brother seeks reality in the Krishas, and Miriam shoplifts in a manical way (I don't want to give away that plot). It's a terrific book -- lyrical, touching and well conceived. As an aside, it's nice to see a book when the father is the one who holds together a broken family. He's a very sympathetic and well-drawn character. So far, it's one of my favorite books of the year.
Rating: 
Summary: An astute exploration of one family's life
Review: This is an exploration of one family and the shifting roles that the members play. Essentially at the beginning of the novel, there is an uneasy peace; as the characters change, they impact not only their own lives, but the lives of all the other characters. The novel is a study of the growth of the individual and the death of the family.
Rating: 
Summary: Good writing, but plot cliched
Review: Hi!I loved the writing style, but the plot itself I thought, was pretty cliched. A new focus of attention in the family and the family spins out of control! A nice thing about the novel also, was the glimpses into Miriam's mind and how possibly a kleptomaniac would work. Overall a fairly good read, but I wouldn't put it on the top of my summer reading list.
Rating:
Summary: Suburban Mysticism
Review: I'm amazed that earlier reviewers see this novel as a picture of contemporary Jewish life. Not only is this a story of the complete disintegration of a family and its members, it also contains strong implications regarding the often manipulative seduction of spirituality and it's power over the young and vulnerable. While I found certain aspects of the religious aura she created interesting, the primary obstacle to my complete enjoyment of this novel was Goldberg's attribution of very adult emotions and reasoning to her younger characters. While their naivete is apparent, they are somehow able to focus completely on their goals, forsaking all else. Eliza's epiphany toward the end of the book was, for me, a bit over the rainbow; I was never quite able to accept the extreme mystical qualities attributed to the process of spelling, especially for a ten year old (even one that would do anything to please her father). I can accept, however, that the startling realization that your home life is dissolving could cause a child to seek comfort in less concrete or earthly matters. Somehow, this story seems to set out to accomplish one thing--the description of family and personal turmoil--and becomes awash in a sea of religious imagery and mystical concentration. It was the story of Eliza's mother, Miriam, that most captured my imagination. Her seething instabiity and its kaleidescopic manifestations were truly breathtaking. However, it seems unlikely that such an overwhelming degree of unsteadiness should go undetected within the confines of a long marriage. The power of language and Myla Goldberg's obvious talents in its portrayal are apparent; the primary plot focuses on the allure of the written word! She is clearly a gifted writer with a startilngly promising future.
Rating:
Summary: A bright, spinning tragedy
Review: Like Miriam's (the mom's) curly hair, this book is a tightly wound, pleasurably tense read that affects you strangely as it starts to relax and unwind. It's the story of a brilliant, distressed couple whose lyrical obsessions are transmuted to their two children, and how those children respond to those obsessions and manage them on their own terms. All the reviews tell the truth: it's about a family falling apart, but they fall apart beautifully and with a strange, knowledgeable determination. So this is just as much a story about how things take shape and come together -- the big things like a marriage, a religious conviction, or a terrible lie, and the small things like a family dinner, a secret dream, and a single word. The big and the small suddenly start morphing into each other for this family, and they all have a collective bad trip they can't come down from -- to pick up the book's psychedelic and mystical overtones. They bend under the weight of their own little heavy universe. If this language like sounds too much and if some of the plot twists seem unbelievable, well...that's what the book is about too -- how language and words and the acts of loved ones (including God himself) just get to be too much (too much to bother with, too much to control, too much to believe, too much to ignore, just too much). A potent, rewarding read.
Rating:
Summary: Mysticism & m-a-d-n-e-s-s
Review: "Bee Season" is an absorbing, thought-provoking book. I'm not one of the readers who couldn't put the book down--I had to take a break from its intensity every few pages--but I'm recommending it to all of my friends who are hardcore readers. An eccentric Jewish family of four find their lives turned topsy-turvy by daughter Eliza's unexpected prowess in spelling bees. As Myra Goldberg explores the individual and family dynamics that have brought each character to this point, we begin to see that each family member is driven to seek the same thing--a transcendent knowledge of God--but in ways that are shaped by his or her own desires, fears and expectations. There's not a better exploration of the yearning for a mystical union with God, with all its promise and peril for the seeker.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Language and a Wonderful Story
Review: "Bee Season" is the exceptional look into the world of a family. A flawed family that changes and grows (some for the better..some for the worse) as young Eliza finds a passion and talent for spelling bees. This backdrop adds such a wonderful and sweet tale of this amazing family and the flaws that bind them. I found the character of the brother to be most appealing and interesting to read. This is a completely wonderful book and I look forward to more by this very talented author. Her use of words and language is first rate....very well done.
Rating:
Summary: For readers who love words
Review: Luminous. I was so moved by this book that after finishing it I slept with it on the pillow next to me. This is a perfectly written piece of art. Each member of the Naumann family comes fully to life. Goldberg has done a marvelous job of getting the reader into Eliza's mind, into the world of a fifth-grade girl. The change in Eliza when she wins the spelling bee sets her whole family into a spin, each beginning to investigate how they can change, too. All each wants to do is wear their internal self on the outside, to show they are made of something as special and surprising as Eliza is.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting but flawed tragedy
Review: I often wondered who joins the Hare Krishna sect and how. This is one of the several fascinating subplots of Bee Season. However, by mid-book I grew a little weary of the main plot, about a girl's increasing obsession with spelling, and never fully believed the character of her mother (though I'd love to be able to sort laundry with my toes as she does--while doing two other things). In fact all the characters grew too strange for this reader, and Goldberg's descriptions, while lush and full of feeling, were often too long. Overall, it's worth reading, but Bee Season spells PROMISE rather than SUCCESS.
Rating:
Summary: Diverse, insightful, surprising, original
Review: A remarkable book. Never predictable, never disappointing. A completely orginal look at mysticism, materialism, charisma, marriage, families, mental health, vegetarian cooking, and sex, all kaleidescopically displayed through the metaphor of spelling. The perfect book.
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