Rating: 
Summary: Not super great terrific, just ok.
Review: After listening to this writer on Bookworm, I went out and bought the book read it then concluded that it sounded better on the radio. Then I had a flash of the old days when a writer lived without TV and all the trappings of our happy world. And I wondered if the Kafka she admires of yesterday would have been published today? How brazen one needs to be to capture the eye of a publisher. Yep, Kafka would have shyed away and put his insights in his work. There is something amiss in the current writing trends and media overexposure. Has writing and getting published been reduced to a popularity contest? I bet there are great writers out there who get overlooked for fear of being so cleverly bold. Without mystery something gets lost. Maybe writers should just write.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: I don't believe I've ever been so entranced as I have with this book. It's a beautiful, believable tale that touched me on many levels. The story delivered a surprise ending and led up to it beautifully. What a writer!
Rating: 
Summary: Guess I just don't get it
Review: I had heard rave reviews of this book, so I decided to check it out for myself. It's not a bad book: as an English major, I found the spelling/spelling bee mentions and sections interesting. However, I was not so impressed with the theme of Jewish mysticism, or the plotline of the mother who has a serious case of kleptomania. Not a bad book, but also, in my opinion, not deserving of the praise it's receiving. Judge for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, brilliant and ultimately disturbing novel
Review: I'm writing this review after just having finished Bee Season. The book's engaging beginning captures you into a web of pain, confusion, and the terror of mental illness. I am left with the horrifying image of Miriam, so unable to connect to her two emotionally adrift children and her un- comprehending husband. The intellectual obtuseness of both Aaron and Eliza foretell future battles with delusional states in adulthood. There's a reason why the study of Jewish mysticism is forbidden to those under 35 who have not yet married or had children! That being said, Myla Goldberg writes extraordinarily well. I'm very glad I read this book and I will pass it on -- but I must confess the ending is chilling and left me shaken.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing...but good first try
Review: There is too much madness and pain in this book. The belabored writing only adds to the reader's pain. The characters are all flat. I never got to the point where I cared about any of them. I couldn't even picture the mother. Too much philosophical thought is attributed to Eliza, the fifth grade speller. The father, Saul, thinks he cares deeply about his family but he doesn't even know any of them. These four people just live in the same house. I wouldn't really call them a family. Myla Goldberg shows some promise as a writer. The premise for the novel was good. She has the ability to use language beautifully. The book seemed too packed for me, as if Myla tried to put all the ideas she had into this first book. One or two crazy people are usually enough. Myla needs a good editor, and she needs to slow down and focus on one story at a time. There is a genius to her writing that sits just below the surface, though. She needs to relax, not pay quite so much attention to the rules about writing she learned in school, and let her genius take over. Better luck next time.
Rating:
Summary: Four and a half stars really.
Review: An impressive debut from a new writer. I'm reluctant to give this book five stars, but I think it deserves more than four. Bee Season is entertaining and thought-provoking, with interesting characters and more suspense than you'll usually see in literary novels. I'm looking forward to Ms. Goldberg's subsequent novels to see how she grows as a writer. I think she has the potential to produce some truly great work two or three books from now. (BTW, my mother loved this book. I bet she'd give it five stars.)
Rating:
Summary: Skepticism turned awe!
Review: First let me say, I wanted to hate this book. I mean really hate it. When I opened to the first page, I wanted it to be trite and boring and mundane. Why? Because somewhere in print I read that Goldberg didn't really want to write this - she wanted to get into something much more esoteric but was told she wouldn't get any readers unless she started more mainstream. I was insulted, and (being passive-aggressive) decided to read it (but I'm not buying it!) further spurred on by the NY Times reviews calling it "fervidly intelligent" and "particularly original and intriguing." Then the Seattle Times called it a "near perfect novel." C'mon now, how good could it be when she really didn't want to write it to begin with? Well, it could make me give it four stars in spite of myself. Goldberg is a careful writer, writing sentences in which each word has important implications - literal and symbolic. Words seem calculated - but not forced - and don't distract you from the intensity of the character's dysfunctional dynamics that uncoil themselves throughout the novel. The family's reluctant interdependency upon each other, both worldly and emotional, real and imagined, is incredibly insightful but never obvious. Goldberg is not insulting with her insights - the reader can find them provided that one is looking, and without having to be a literary scholar. As the famly spins on its out of control trajectory towards the end of the book, I found myself second guessing their actions - wanting to try and predict the unpredictable - to make order out of the madness. Perhaps this was the author's intention all along? If so, she has led me down the path and I have followed blindly. And been pleased with what I've found at the end. Since returning the library's copy, I have purchased my own copy to lend to others - this is a book worth getting others into. I have not enjoyed a book as much as this one in a long time. My only disappointment is that I can't imagine where Goldberg will go from here.
Rating:
Summary: "Perfectly" conveys the spiritual yearning of adolescence
Review: This book more than any other I have read recently captures the mystical yearning of young people, a yearning which is too often repressed because of parental or peer pressure or from the daily grind that is adult life. (Sometimes to be reborn in later years.) The immediacy of Eliza's experience, gained through Kabbalah, and Aaron's, through Krishna, speak directly to my memory of being young--an aspect of youth that is rarely dwelt on explicitly today, though it shines through rave culture. That most of us are still haunted by our teenage dream of transcendence and unity is made very clear through Miriam's kaleidoscopic Perfectimundo world, which says, "ignore me at your peril." This wise book shows us that enlightenment can come from many paths, and it does so through an incredibly real cast of characters, with thoughts and emotions we viscerally feel. The limpid beauty of Goldberg's writing reintroduced my young self to me. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Not what you think
Review: I read about this book in the New York Times book review and was intrigued enough just to borrow it from the library because I thought it might not be worth buying the hardcover. I totally enjoyed the book and found it hard to put down. Initially only remembering that it was about a little girl and a spelling bee, I was engaged and engrossed by the sub-plots of each family member. Myla Goldberg does an excellent job of making you care deeply for Eliza as you see the story unfold mostly through her eyes. The fact that the family is devoutly jewish adds another facinating and critical element to the story that I absolutely embrased from my own personal experience of growing up devoutly catholic. This book is not only a worthwhile read, but leaves you with something that you can keep, if only in your heart.
Rating:
Summary: Not even close to what the book jacket promises
Review: This book was a gift and I felt obliged to the giver to read it (otherwise I surely wouldn't have finished it). The story was painfully slow. When it finally took off and all the familial dysfunction revealed, the story ends. Which wasn't too terrible, since I didn't care enough about any of the characters to want to know what happened to them. I found the four characters flat and often unbelievable. I think Ms. Goldberg lost the forest for the trees. Every word, every metaphor seems to have been so carefully written. Yet, the characters and story need depth and development. Ms. Goldberg would make a skilled poet, but this novel needs work.
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