Rating: 
Summary: Spellbinding at start, but gets dinged before over
Review: I think this novel demonstrates genuine talent and even better things to come from its author. It starts out terrifically, and remains so as long as it focuses on Eliza's its Jamesian heroine. When Goldberg expands the novel's plot and point of view to include brother Aaron and parents Saul and especially Miriam, it becomes diffuse and inauthentic. In particular, the plotting around Miriam depends too much, for my taste, on withholding information that the point of view should not leave hidden--as if the novelist had to violate her own terms of narrative perspective in order to produce a "surprise" ending. Nonetheless, definitely worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: highly recommended
Review: As a bookseller, I sometimes receive preview copies of books and I was lucky enough to have a copy of this given to me. This is a novel of extraordinary intelligence and insight and I am absolutely awed that this is the work of a first time novelist. Ms. Goldberg's storytelling is completely stunning - in examining this family that is veering out of control, and in telling of Eliza's incredible enlightenment and transformation. There is much food for thought and discussion in this book. This is a novel that I recommend highly to anyone who is always looking for a wonderful first fiction author.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I received this book as a birthday gift and might not have happened upon it otherwise. Goldberg is an extremely gifted writer, with a talent for understanding people and communicating their feelings to the reader. She shows us the sacrifices that we all must make at times to hold our families together. She also demonstrates a comfortable knowledge of Kabbalist studies, Hare Krishna, and psychiatric disorders. This is an absolute must read, but buy some frozen dinners and turn the ringer off on the phone first! You're not going to be able to quit!
Rating:
Summary: truly remarkable
Review: I picked up this book intending to get around to it sometime and ended up reading it in one sitting. This is truly one of the best books I've read in years. I can't believe that I'm actually using the word "dazzling" to describe Ms. Goldberg's writing, but it certainly seems appropriate. I also hope the book does not get pigeonholed as "Jewish literature" as the themes of the novel speak to a psychology of mysticism and to family dynamics that transcend cultural boundaries. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: Bee Season Rules
Review: This is an amazing book! An underachieving girl and her dysfunctional family are portrayed as three dimensional, living characters. Each seeks transcendence in their own way, with their own story, yet they all come together to create a unique whole. Funny, poignant, and impossible to put down...
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: 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: A really good story, and really good writing
Review: This is the best book I have read in a long time. Goldberg writes beautifully and the story is woven together like a rich, colorful tapestry. "Bee Season" is the story of a family that disintegrates as each member seeks individual spiritual enlightenment. The Naumann family is based on a tissue of lies and misconceptions, but manages to maintain a precarious balance until the "average" daughter upsets the equilibrium by unexpectedly winning a spelling bee. Although the daughter, Eliza, is the catalyst that sets drastic changes in motion, they are really the result of the complete self absorption and lack of awareness exhibited by her father Saul. He is a man with a mission, and his single-minded efforts to find divine connection blind him to the chaos all around him. He somehow fails to notice that his wife Miriam is mentally ill and his son Aaron is a total misfit falling under the influence of a cult. He also seems to have conveniently forgotten that Jewish mysticism is serious business. He irresponsibly introduces it to a child--despite long-standing prohibitions against its exploration by any other than mentally stable, educated adults. Saul is completely clueless about the forces in motion in his own household. As disaster follows disaster, he clings to the belief that Eliza will win the national spelling championship, and this will be a sign from God that he is on the right path. Eliza chooses to make sure that her father cannot continue to hide from the truth. If he can ever figure out what happened, he might indeed achieve enlightenment.
Rating: 
Summary: An absorbing start, but turns dry and lifeless.
Review: I agree with the review that said this book seemed almost as if the first and second halves had been written by two different authors. It starts out as an absorbing tale of a largely unnoticed girl who becomes a local celebrity--and the new family star--through her extraordinary gift for spelling. The dynamics of her dysfunctional family, the gripping tension of the spelling bee scenes, and the book's insightful glimpses into the inner world of a child all make for an engaging and believable read. Then the book takes a wrong turn about halfway through, and begins concentrating on arcane aspects of religious mysticism, both Hare Krishna and especially Kabbalah. The quest for spiritual enlightenment is certainly a worthwhile theme--but does the reader really need to wade through dry, excruciatingly specific detail about such matters as how letters should be pronounced and what body movements should accompany them? This is fiction; surely the point could have been made more concisely. Despite a strong ending, the focus on mystic esoterica at the expense of action and character development robs an otherwise smart and well-crafted story of emotional impact.
Rating: 
Summary: Sick
Review: As an avid reader of many books, I looked forward to reading Bee Season, after seeing the author on TV. I must admit this is absolutely the worst book I have ever read. I kept hoping the book would resolve itself and I would care about the characters. It never did, and I never did. A boring read about a very dysfunctional family. I threw my copy away after reading it.
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