Rating: 
Summary: "Kabbalah gone awry"
Review: As a therapist and teacher of Jewish mysticism (and author of a book on the healing wisdom of the Kabbalah) I was eager to read Bee Season. I was excited to hear about a novel that incorporated the mystical themes I had spent the past 30 years of my life studying.
Despite Goldberg's fine writing, somehow, I could not identify or empathize with any of the central characters in this book. I found myself disturbed by her characters and their strange distortion of the Kabbalah. A mentally ill mother whose psychosis takes on "mystical-Jewish" themes just did not cut it for me, even though I have worked with many therapy clients who used religion and spirituality to mask their emotional difficulties.
Furthermore, I found myself feeling aggravated by the fact that readers who were unfamiliar with the Kabbalah, might take Goldberg's "fantasy" as an accurate portrayal of what happens to people who engage in this ancient mystical tradition. Goldberg's strange portrayal of Jewish mystical family dysfunction might turn them off to reading anything meaningful about the Kabbalah.
Yet, despite my dismay over Goldberg's characters somehow I felt compelled to finish reading the book and even to take the time to write this review! I have to ask myself why?
Evidently, there was something compelling in this disturbing book that defies reason. I suppose I am just fascinated by the way that the study of Kabbalah, which has been one of my great loves since the age of 16,is finally becoming mainstream. To the degree that Kabbalah is understood or misunderstood, I somehow think it's a good sign for our times, that people are looking into this ancient mystical tradition.
One of the ancient biblical prophets wrote "behold days are coming, sayeth the Lord, and I will send a famine in the land. It will not be a famine for bread or water but to hear the word of God..." Perhaps, we are living in those very times. People are so hungry for meaning, so yearning for spiritual nourishment.
Let's hope that by the time Goldberg writes her next novel, she will find a spiritual mentor who can help her discover the true meaning and beauty of the Kabbalah. Perhaps with the right guidance she will learn to use her gift as a writer to inspire her readers with tales of redemption and healing--the true message of the ancient sages. (Estelle Frankel, author of Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing & Inner Wholeness)
Rating: 
Summary: A must-read!
Review: BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg
September 5, 2004
A few years ago I had read a wonderful novel by Myla Goldberg, BEE SEASON. It is about a dysfunctional Jewish family whose lives are disrupted when the daughter, Eliza Naumann, wins a spelling bee. She had never displayed any aptitude in school for any subject whatsoever, and usually spent her leisure time watching television. It was her brother, Aaron, who was the star of the family, and he spent a lot of his free time with their father, Saul. When Saul realizes Eliza has talent after all, he decides to groom her into a championship speller, and now the time once spent with Aaron is spent with Eliza.
I had procrastinated too long in writing this review, so the details of the story have faded from my mind. I do remember one thing: this was one of my favorite books read in 2003. The main attraction to this book is the characters. The novel goes into detail the history of Saul and his wife Miriam, the rather unconventional lifestyle they had in their college years, their courtship and subsequent marriage. Some of the story leads to a somewhat paranormal type of story line, which may or may not turn off the reader. However, I felt that Goldberg's skills as a writer made this whole section of the book very believable and well done. Saul's obsession with Eliza and her spelling prowess take the novel to its climax, and the ending I found very unexpected, yet appropriate.
I rated this book 5 stars, for originality and content. It is a definitely recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Dark, wonderful and unique piece of work!
Review: Bee Season is a wonderful, enthralling dark novel. It is both a coming of age tale and a dysfunctional family drama. I must also add that this novel is unique and somewhat dark and therefore not for everyone. Eliza Naumann is a shy, unremarkable nine-year-old girl -- treated as nothing special by everyone, including her family. It isn't until she wins the area spelling bee and is off to the nationals that she finally gets some attention from her cerebral father. Her mother is another story, another plot line. From the moment Miriam, Eliza's mother, is introduced, there is something simply not right with her. One of Goldberg's threads in this novel explores what's inside Miriam's head. We also meet Eliza's brother Aaron who, because Eliza has displaced him from the child of honor in the household, goes off on a spiritual quest of his own. Things are not what they seem in this novel, there is much brewing in this seemingly simple suburban family. Saul, the father, sees Eliza's spelling talent as a sign of her inner mysticism, but he focuses on her talents so much that the rest of the family are neglected to the point of breakdown...There are no easy resolutions to their problems and the novel does not end with loose ends tied up neatly like most novels do -- the problems continue. The mysticism element of the novel may strike some as odd, but it adds a particular brand of magic realism that I like. Perhaps the aforementioned factors are the reasons why many readers dislike this novel. But it would be a shame not to give this wonderful piece of work a whirl. Bee Season is a marvelous novel written by a talented young writer. Myla Goldberg's writing is beautiful, her characters real and compelling. It took me a long time to give this novel a whirl. I am glad I did!
Rating: 
Summary: A flawed but fascinating novel.
Review: Bee Season is far from a flawless novel, and certainly not for every reader. I came very close to abandoning it several times in the middle, and if I had reviewed it without reading the final third, I would have given it no more than two stars. But in the end it comes together so beautifully that itÕs impossible not to forgive the author for some clumsiness along the way. The novel is about family dysfunction and the search for spiritual transcendence, and if that makes it sound like an Oprah Winfrey book, nothing could be further off the mark. WhatÕs fascinating is the way Goldberg weaves the two themes together. Each of the four members of the Naumann family is on a spiritual quest. The father, Saul, tries to reach God by reading ancient Kabbalistic texts. At first, his teenage son, Aaron, shares his fatherÕs spiritual path, but when the father begins paying more attention to his sister than to him, he veers off into studying Eastern religions, finally joining a cult. The mother, Miriam, who lost her parents in a car accident as a child, finds a strange spiritual fulfillment in stealing valueless objects that she feels she has lost (just as she lost her family), and arranging them in what seem to her perfect and beautiful patterns. Finally, the daughter, Eliza, discovers a gift for spelling that takes her to the national spelling bee. But spelling becomes, for her, a form of meditation that leads, finally, to an encounter with God. The family dysfunction comes about because, while each Naumann searches for God, none of them recognize that they are all longing for the same thing. Ironically, and tragically, their search for God pulls them farther and farther from one another. And in almost every case, that spiritual search leads them close to madness, or completely over the edge. Only Eliza, in the end, finds a balance. In a breathtaking conclusion, she finds God, and rejects her familyÕs obsession with spiritual perfection. The flaws in this novel mostly have to do with how Goldberg describes the religious obsessions of Aaron and Saul. When Aaron talks to members of the Krishna cult he joins, the dialog is as dull as you would expect a conversation between a nerdy teenager and someone in an orange robe to be. SaulÕs attempts to explain the Kabbalah to Eliza suffer from the same soporific writing (and the 10-year-old ElizaÕs instant understanding of it is utterly unbelievable). Unfortunately, those bits of conversation take up quite a bit of the middle third of the novel àthe place where I almost stopped reading. But in the end, it works. This isnÕt an easy, feel-good book, but I think anyone interested in spiritual themes (and willing to hang in there through the awkward parts) would find it fascinating. IÕm much more aware of the mystic tradition in Catholicism than in either Judaism or Eastern religions, but the tension between the desire to transcend the world and the need to be part of it is a universal spiritual dilemma that has challenged people of all faiths, I think. And Myla Goldberg has dealt with that dilemma in a very soul-satisfying way.
Rating: 
Summary: A Strong Start...
Review: But halfway through the book the author completely loses it. It almost seems as if another author wrote the second half because it goes from normal and interesting to weird, confusing, unrealistic and just plain freaky. It seems as if the author got halfway through and realized she wouldn't win any awards unless she made it more over the top and stylized. It really didn't work.
Rating:
Summary: Bee Season, a novel by Myla Goldberg; a review.
Review: Each of the four major characters in Myla Goldberg's first novel, Bee Season, has a secret. They also have a near fatal flaw or wound within them, which they use their secret lives to manage, protect and heal. The novel focuses on an otherwise ordinary ten year old girl named Eliza Naumann, who becomes a spelling genius overnight. But it is also the story of Eliza's family and her touching desire for this odd, estranged cast of characters to just be normal for once and love each other, at any cost.
Eliza's father, Saul, is a Bohemian scholar of the Kabbalah--the academic tradition of Jewish mysticism--and is a unsuccessful, somewhat bitter contender to the mysteries himself. Eliza's troubled, brilliant mother, Miriam, may actually be a cruel living form of the mysteries Saul has failed to work out. She's even a mystery to the reader. It is mainly Eliza and her journey into the world of spelling bee culture that makes the reader drawn to this novel. Goldberg describes this strange cruel world of competition, anxiety, triumph and failure, all the way from the elementary school to the national level. Everyone has a story, a wound or a loss in this book, but Goldberg just happens to be focusing on one particular family. Eliza's delight in her new spelling bee successes quickly escalates into a cheerful recovery of her father's affections. Saul, who had written his daughter off as being unexceptional, sees new confirmation in her strange spelling ability. He begins to train Eliza in the discipline of the Kabbalah and sure enough, she is a natural. Eliza's previous happiness soon turns into a greedy quest for the joy she finds in the power of words. She moves from longing normal family love to hungering for a inspirational form of divine love that brings her closer to the same hunger driving her mother, brother and father in their own separate directions. Goldberg builds her threads intricately and slowly. Each slight and misunderstanding is obviously ripped from all-too-real life. Eliza's school and bee observations about achievement, non-achievement, and expectations are perfectly hurtful . The life of the other bee contestants is a beautiful tour of misery.
After reading this book, you will spend a lot of time second guessing your motivations for everything; especially your beliefs about your interactions with others. Although Bee Season is a grim story, it is told with great wit and there is an earned positive ending. This is a novel that men and women off all ages would really enjoy because it provides much insight on life itself and how we see ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: 4 men entered a garden..,a timely novel of Jewish familylife
Review: From the moment I picked up this novel, I kept thinking "four men entered the garden..." Students of Kabbalah will understand. Jewish book reading groups should place this book on the list; it will be a must read. Oberlin grad, and first time Brooklyn novelist, Myla Goldberg, mixes Jewish family dynamics, adolescence, the itchy nervous stress of a national spelling bee, Reconstructionist synagogue life, mysticism, and the writings of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, the Kabbalist, into a witty, extraordinary, and compelling story about nine year old Eliza Naumann's quest for family status. A successful and driven couple, Saul and Miriam, wonder why Eliza, an average, quiet nine year old, is not excelling in school like her older brother Aaron. Aaron is the vessel, but then again, weren't the vessels at creation shattered? Will Eliza be tracked into the "dummies" classes forever? Is she really their daughter if she isn't brilliant? But then Eliza sweeps her school, district, and state spelling bees. Saul, a synagogue cantor and self-taught student of Jewish mysticism, who ignored Eliza up to this point, now invests his time into coaching her. He focuses on Eliza at the expense of his formerly annointed prodigal son, Aaron. Now only Eliza is allowed into Saul's inner sanctum, or garden, of his study. Now Aaron loses faith. Aaron, who is a searcher for a repeat epiphany, no longer finds joy with ELiza in playing the synagogue game to see who will sit down first during the silent Amidah prayers. Then he meets a man in a park. Oh, I can tell no more; if I only had Eliza and Miriam's powers of concentration.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting ideas, but misses the mark
Review: Goldberg has some interesting and imaginative ideas here, and I think she is an excellent writer with a lot of promise, but the writing style just didn't suit this story. I do enjoy dark and quirky and challenging novels, and even dysfunctional family novels - but only if they are subtly written. Many of the events here (and many of the characters' thoughts and observations) were simply too unbelievable. Goldberg's writing style is sometimes heavy-handed (she does a lot of "telling" instead of "showing"), which prevents the story from soaring into the darkly beautiful / weirdly lyrical stratosphere that she was trying to reach. Instead, the story felt forced, and Goldberg's detached prose often held me at arm's length. I think that she should have either reined in her crazy story and made it more believable, or should have loosened up her writing style to make it more relaxed and fanciful. The far-fetched plot and the clinical writing style just didn't suit each other. As a result, I never really got involved with the characters or the story. Conclusion: shows promise but is overrated, in my opinion. But I will keep an eye out for her future novels.
p.s. If you enjoyed the spelling bee parts, check out the documentary "Spellbound."
Rating:
Summary: A Dysfunctional Family Meets the Spelling Bee
Review: Here's a book with excellent writing and well-drawn, if somewhat unlikable characters. It's a coming-of-age story about Eliza Naumann, an "average" child in a family of brillant people. One day, Eliza and her teacher discover a special talent in Eliza: spelling. Eliza goes on to win her school spelling bee and ultimately ends up at the national competition. Woven throughout the book are mystical Jewish themes. Though I didn't care much for the other characters, I was rooting for Eliza and think this is an excellent first novel by author Myla Goldberg.
Rating:
Summary: starts out fine...then gets weird
Review: I was thoroughly excited and entranced by Bee Season the moment I started reading. I loved the idea of the girl as an underdog in a family of overachievers, who finally comes to find her own talent. It rings true to the lives of many pre-adolescent girls-and being set in the 80's, Eliza reminded me of myself in this time period.
But then....(and i'm not going to spoil the ending) the book takes a turn and i completely felt like I was dredging through mud to get to end. It was as if the writer had 2 story ideas in mind and tried to paste them together. What began as a quiet, meditative tale based around characters and their emotions turned into a soap opera of mental illness and religious fanaticism (and believe me, these plot points really do come out of nowhere as the book turns into a different story after the first spelling bee) What was believable and endearing about the characters, turned into something completely far-fetched and overdramatic. They became caricatures and the details of the family I found interesting at the beginning of the story became totally unbelievable and sort of creepy at the end. I the end I was glad it was over, but also left confused and dissapointed.
|
