Rating: 
Summary: Not Quite as Described ...
Review: Most reviews of Bee Season I've come across focus on Eliza's transformation from being an average,unexceptional child to a gifted spelling bee contestant. The truth is, that's only the set-up of the book, presenting the potential reader with the misconception that it is a tale of family set against the backdrop of the spelling bee circuit. This couldn't be farther from the truth.Bee Season is about the quest for spritual fullfillment and understanding. It's about an overzealous father incapable of connecting with his children outside of the bounds of religion, a daughter who is delighted to finally get her father's interest, a son in the midst of a spiritual crisis, and a mother with a secret life. A knowledge or interest in Jewish mysticism is essential to readers approaching this book, as is an interest in spiritual matters in general. I found it enjoyable, but not exactly as advertised. There's a fabulous climax where everything comes together, although the denoument leaves much unresolved.
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: The Bees Stopped Polinating!
Review: What a sad story! The story begins by introducing us to four members (dad, mom, sister and brother) of one family, each one lacking self-worth. That starts to change when Eliza learns she can spell. You see each member of the family relating to her success. Then Saul, her dad, wants to improve on her spelling ability (his life up to this point has been devoid of real purpose). By devouring Eliza's life with his mind altering philosophies, he not only destroys Eliza but his wife and son's life. The last scene is interesting. Eliza realizes what her dad has done to each one of them and explodes his bubble of self-aggrandizement with one letter!! Bless her heart!!!
Rating:
Summary: A dazzling novel of the modern family
Review: BEE SEASON If Bee Season were just about an average schoolgirl (Eliza) who blossoms by winning spelling bees, thereby winning the love and respect of her family, friends, and teachers it would have been a heartwarming novel and probably have been a fine complete story, but Myla Goldberg doesn't stop at easy with her plot or her characters. The second half of the book treads into deeper darker waters. There are earlier hints of what is to come: the lawyer mother's excessive busyness, obsessive cleanliness and aloofness; the father's past hippy days, dabbling in mysticism contrasted with his present life as cantor of his synagogue and his zealousness toward his children, the teenage brother's difficult adolescence. The second half really becomes a story about four people, who can't seem to function as a family: Each lives in a separate but parallel universe, heading either toward spiritual transformation or possible destruction. I don't want to say more about the plot and give things away. This is one where it's better if you don't know too much before you read the book. In a style at once accessible and complex, which is oddly reminiscent of Jane Hamilton's "Disobedience", Myla Goldberg deftly outlines her plot and carves out a collision course for her characters, while she deals with large universal and contemporary themes of family, religious and belief, mental illness, child rearing and parenting, educational choices, coming of age, and love. There are a couple of obstacles, the largest of which is the ability of a 9-year-old to study Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). Although I don't agree with the old precept that said one must be forty, learned, and wise before starting to study Kabbalah, this did stretch plausibility, but I don't think it spoils the story. The other point - I sense that readers who are not Jewish may not appreciate the book to its fullest, although it is definitely not a deterrent or a reason not to read the book. For me, being able to identify with the "Silent Amidah" and that type of Friday night service, for example, or knowing the ambivalence that many Jewish American teenagers feel, did enrich the reading. In any case, as most of us are raised in families, I still think it is a book that people of many backgrounds can relate to. It is an important book and definitely one you will want to discuss and argue with your friends and in your book clubs.
Rating: 
Summary: Fate of a Family turns on a Bee
Review: I really liked Bee Season. It was sad and sweet. I always felt like I could write a book, but now I wonder if I could really develop characters the way some writers do. I mean, she had to know about spelling bees--okay, not so hard, but also Jewish mysticism, obsessive compulsion, eastern religion. I think I'd get tired of doing all the research just to have my facts right. Myla Goldberg brings us a glimpse into the Goldberg family. Young Eliza wins a spelling bee, and in that one moment changes the course of her family's life. Suddenly, Father Saul becomes interested in her, shunning his son Aaron, who seeks approval from other sources. And just how disconnected is Saul from his wife Mirium? You won't believe what the Bee Season reveals to us! Four individuals in the same house do not a family make! Any way, I wasn't surprised by the ending--the very ending, not all of the end of the book. I think it really captured the dynamics of a family and children's yearning for their parents' love and approval. I did find it a bit difficult to wade through some of the Jewish mysticism in this book. I wish I could have been carried along with Eliza.
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: Dark
Review: This one was a bit too dark for me. Perhaps I just wasn't receptive, but the disfunction of this family really bothered me to the point that I could not sympathize with anyone but the daughter. Just not my cup of tea.
Rating:
Summary: The secret life of the bee spelling competitors
Review: Tolstoy once said that all happy families are alike; but the unhappy ones are unhappy each one is its own way. The Naumanns have found a very peculiar way of being unhappy --actually, each one of the four members found his/her personal way of bringing problems to the family in this superb debut by Myla Goldberg. Using the spelling bees as a metaphor to life and making it the cause of a familiar cataclysm only enhances the great experience of reading "Bee Season". I wasn't sure of what to expect from this novel when I picked, but after a couple of pages, anyone can realize to be in front of a talented writer. Not only has Goldberg an ability to create human and flawed characters that come to life in every page, but she also has a beautiful use of the language. The narrative has a couple of twists that come very naturally due to the fact that the writer has developed them from the beginning. We know that the Naumanns won't end up in the same way they began, and that they'll be through lots of changes and difficult experiences. By the way, this is the point of writing and reading a novel. Why should we care about people's whose lives stand still for 400 pages? More than a coming-of-age story, "Bee Season" is a deep look into the contemporary dysfunctional family, and the role that education and religion play with its members. Western and Eastern religions are present in this narrative and have an important function. Their battle is one of the central turmoil of the novel, bringing characters against each other, setting a familiar chaos. One of the most beautiful characters is the mother, Miriam. She is the one who brings a central twist to the narrative. But she is so well developed that when all her problems come up, they don't sound gratuitous, rather, they are real and sad. Every member of this family has a serious issue to deal with. But mostly the children have to suffer the consequences of their parents' choices. And when this happening, it is devastating. With "Bee Season" Goldberg is able to drawn into a lake explored to exhaustion, and she manages to climb to the surface alive and full of originality. Her characters go downer and downer and still manage to keep their humanity; and this is something rare in a book nowadays. A quick summary of "Bee Season" may put off some readers, but it shouldn't. At first the subject --the spelling bees --may sound childish, but once the central turmoil --the family falling apart -- is set, the book goes to deep emotional issues with integrity and beauty making this a jewel of novel.
Rating:
Summary: Busy Bee
Review: Bee Season by Myla Goldberg is a bestselling debut novel that will appeal to teenagers and adults alike. It revolves around a young girl named Eliza who shocked her family by winning the school spelling bee and advancing to a larger competition. That ends up being the catalyst for the story, with much more to it that you would expect based on summary alone. The tale is structured in third person and follows each family member - father, mother, son, daugher - through his or her personal story and secret lives. Without giving too much away, I will say that I wish the ending was more conclusive for everyone, but it definitely was a solid end for at least one determined character.
Rating:
Summary: a warm and fuzzy feeling
Review: Though the story is set while communication between members of the family is stilted, Goldberg gently shows us the gradual evolution of the family unit, from the excitement of the new couple to the monotony of their marriage; from the closeness of the siblings to the chasm of parental favoritism. I found I was able to sympathize much more easily with the characters once I understood from whence they came. This did make the expression of Aaron's angst all the more poignant, and the joy Eliza feels in her father's study all the more potent.
Goldberg illustrates equal parts of the dark and light in this family's dynamics, yet all the balance did not prepare me for the bittersweetness I felt when I put the novel down. If there could only be more girls like Eliza.
A quick read you'll want to savor.
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