Rating: 
Summary: Left me wanting more
Review: Myla Goldberg's Bee Season was an interesting read. Eliza Naumann's family appears to be unraveling around her in a swirl of spelling bees and mysticism. The book kept me engaged and interested but I wanted more out of it. I think her parents, particularly the mother Miriam could have been fleshed out more, so that we were better able to understand her instability. Also, I felt that the conflict between Aaron and his father occurred for too long in silence and fizzled when they actually confronted one another. An interview with Goldberg states that her favorite type of book is one that pulls you into the middle of things, takes you for a ride and then just lets go. I suppose that was my biggest issue, I felt there was so much further to go with this family.
I would recommend this book. I read it for a book group and think that we will generate considerable discussion. This was her first book and I would definitely be interested in others.
Rating:
Summary: An assortment of idiosyncratic insanities
Review: Myla Goldberg's debut novel is another entry in the unraveling-family genre, drawing on the desperate familial loneliness found in Jeannette Winterson and the burning, half-mad Jewish introspection described by Chaim Potok. I expected this to be a charming, light narrative about familial bonds and coming of age. Instead, this is a dark novel that brushes with synesthesia in florid, dubious imagery before delving into assorted forms of compulsion and madness. Each member of the Naumann family has a different form of deluded, bizarre obsession that's directly attributable to a stifled need to receive an intimacy they're incapable of giving.Goldberg's prose is frequently strained or stilted, and the omniscient narrator (the novel is peppered with asides of the "she would never know that _____" variety) doesn't help us relate to her characters. Neither does the extreme strangeness of each character's chosen madness -- while Goldberg shows us quite effectively why they take these paths, we can't really relate to them, especially as all of the characters are equally twisted. I was left with the nagging echoes of utter dysfunction and a despairing sense of isolation, without any real idea what I could have gained from subjecting myself to such a harrowing journey into such esoteric, delusional mysticism.
Rating: 
Summary: Bland and distant
Review: Some people might enjoy this book, I guess. I wouldn't qualify it as "literature" (To Kill a Mockingbird), as much as a an attempt to create literature. If the author was trying to be low-key stylistically, she missed the train. Simply put, it lacked ENERGY. I could not sympathize with the characters and their individual plights of living in a dysfunctional family. In total opposition, David Sedaris comes to mind - and he is humorous.
The formulation of words in Eliza's heads during the spelling bees is magical and mystical, and beautifully described. She mines a talent that has gone unnoticed by the "system". The fact the reader had to be told it was so, was unnecessary.
I can neither recommend, nor 'not recommend' this book which leads me to believe that it was just boring.
Rating:
Summary: The only engaging character leaves you disappointed
Review: The plot has been well summarized in other reviews-so my only addition is to note that this book never got me to care about anyone other than Eliza. Every family member was a sad case, but it was Goldberg's ability to tap into Eliza's desperate longing for her father's attention that made her real. The other situations were sad, but not believable. I wouldn't even call them "bizarre"-but a lazy way to wrap things up.
The fact that Goldberg got me to want to reach into the book and give Eliza a hug was testament to the potential of this author.
Rating: 
Summary: For everyone who's ever felt different or out-of-place
Review: This is definitely a difficult book in that it deals with a highly dysfunctional family, but Myla Goldberg makes you care about each and every family member and relate to each one's particular pain. Eliza is the unexceptional child of brilliant parents who have expectations for her which she is incapable of fulfilling. Her cantor father and lawyer mother love her, but manage nevertheless to convey to her their disappointment in her ordinariness and lack of scholastic and intellectual achievement. Eliza's mother can't relate to her husband or her children, and her father, Sol, a deeply religious man, has managed to form a close bond only with Eliza's brother, who plays the guitar and wants to be a cantor like Dad. When Eliza discovers she has an unusual gift for spelling, it seems her prayers have been answered. She gets noticed for the first time, and for the first time her father is able to relate to her as something more than a blood relation who needs to be fed and clothed. As her spelling ability progresses and takes her to previously unknown levels of personal satisfaction, Sol begins to live vicariously through Eliza, seeking to use her to gratify his dreams of transcendence through the Jewish Kabbala. As Sol and Eliza become, closer, however, Eliza's brother gets lost in the shuffle and sets out on his own spiritual journey which takes him away from his life and his family. And as Sol and his two children seek their spiritual salvation, Eliza's mother falls deeper into a secret life that is shocking to discover for both her family and the readers of this book. This book is extremely well-written and the characters fleshed-out. While the family's situation can make for uncomfortable reading at times, it is well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Very unexpected
Review: You get the idea from the jacket cover and from the first half or so that this is a story about young girl finds spelling bee success and finally fits into quirky family, etc. Then the author goes completely into another direction. When Eliza, the family underachiever, wins a spelling bee after being consigned to the realm of diminished expectations, she suddenly wins admiration from her parents, teachers and schoolmates. This newfound attention from her father comes at the expense of her brother's time with him. Her brother, naturally, does not take this very well. This is coupled with some increasingly distant behavior from her mother towards the whole family. The whole family seems to be searching for a way to complete themselves. The father, Saul, through his children. Eliza through trying to please her father, and later through absorption into the study of letters. Her brother Aaron through a spiritual quest that ends (I kid you not) in a Hare Krishna temple. And Eliza's mother--I won't give that away but it's the most captivating and bizarre part of the story. The last third delves heavily into Kabbalistic teachings that will lose most readers (or maybe it's just me.) And I have a hard time believing, like other reviewers, that Eliza who was before a lackluster student would suddenly grasp esoteric principles of Hebrew mysticism. This book is beautifully written though and you'll puzzle over the meaning of it long after it's over. The last two pages will also truly surprise you.
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