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Summary: Indelible images
Review: Myla Goldberg graces her readers with a novel of exceptional perspective and stunning visual images. Her characters are authentic: Eliza is truly a child, Aaron truly a teenager, Saul a needy and thoughtful father and Miriam a genuinely lost woman. And within all of them I found fragments of kinship. However well rendered her characters and well crafted her storyline, it is the images that Goldberg created that are foremost in my mind. I can no gaze out the window of a plane without thinking of Aaron's red light from God and Miriam's creation left an indelible impression on my mind. Goldberg is a gifted writer and I hope to read more of her works in the future.
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Summary: Mazel Tov Myla, for a gem of a book!
Review: this was one of those books that i was unable to put down. I found myself reading well into the night and trying to read it even on my lunch break at work. when it was over, i was sad to see the cast of characters go. you can't not love this book!
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Summary: HIGHLY recommended!
Review: This book was AWESOME, in the true sense of the word! The characters were real, complex and interesting. The story was creative. The writing was practically flawless. Myla Goldberg is my new favorite author - why does she only have one book??
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Summary: Seeking Transcendence
Review: I loved this book, and didn't want it to end. The story of four family members, each seeking transcendence in his or her own way, told predominately from the point of view of a sensitive 9 year-old girl who falls in love with the magic of letters and words. Also a novel of suspense and stunning secrets.
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Summary: Both author and characters seem drugged out
Review: I've never tried it but I understand that some drugs make everything bigger than life, chaotic and, yes, kaleidoscopic. That describes this book. Each character went to the outer limits of believability. The author's photo should have given me a clue that this would be a weird book.
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Summary: Simply Amazing
Review: Goldberg has crafted an amazing exploration of family life, child psychology, and states of transcendence. This novel is compelling, fascinating, and beautiful. I consider myself a picky reader, and I was quite impressed.
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Summary: Too Much Dysfunction
Review: I didn't like this book, although I did manage to finish it. The characters were interesting, but not enough. The brother and the mom are too dysfunctional. It started out fine and I had hopes that it was going to develop into something really good, but, actually, I felt it got slightly worse as I read on. I haven't recommended this to any of my friends.
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Summary: another dysfunctional family
Review: Loved the story, and no sappy ending either!
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Summary: Loved the ending
Review: When I put this book down, I had a smile on my face for about ten minutes. I experienced the frustration many people felt (about the klepto part being a bit overdone) but this book had many redeeming qualities! I cared about the characters, especially Eliza. I love books where individuals are on a quest for an spiritual experience, and here it is a whole family! I do not think Aaron's experience was far-fetched. He is exactly the kind of lonely young man to join such a group. I felt sorry for Saul because I thought he was the most lost, without knowing it. I was intrigued with Miriam's obssesive-compulsive disorder, (perfectimundo) but feel it could be made more believable. I don't think this book is for everyone, but I'm very glad I read it. Overall, I thought this was a very intelligent book.
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Summary: A classic case of too much adding up to too little.
Review: Actually, I liked the book but found it incredibly disappointing. The problem is this isn't a novel-it's three novels tied together by too tenuous a thread crammed into much too confined a space.There is the story of Eliza, tabbed as "slow" by the school system, who one day achieves well beyond expectations and sets in motion a wholesale recalculation of who she is and what she's capable of on everyone's part. This is the first story line, the one Goldberg tries unsuccessfully to use as the glue to hold the entire novel together. This concept has brilliant possibilities but gets too bogged down in major doses of Jewish mysticism along the way that detract mightily from the core idea. The second story line surrounds Eliza's brother's descent into Krishna. Again, there are strong moments here as well but the story line is too fragmented and overwhelmed by other detail to hold together convincingly. Then there is Eliza's mother's descent into psychosis through kleptomania, again, an interesting story that never really gets told though there are snippets that illustrate what the possibilities were. In the end one can't help but feel somewhat attached to Eliza in a sort of amorphous way. One is left to wonder just how terrific this story could have been if Goldberg had concentrated enough on her story to have revealed her as a fully developed character.
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