Rating: 
Summary: Uneven And Bizarre..
Review: Like many people who pick up this book,I too also thought it was going to be exclusively about the "Spelling Bee Experience" which,in itself is an interesting enough subject. Then the book goes off in to some very out there tangents,especially dealing with the mother of the spelling whiz : a very disurbed Kleptomanic. The father, meanwhile, is wonderfully kind(if slightly out of touch) and supportive mentor to his daughter Eliza. Finally, the older brother is a more realistic character: unhappy teenager who is trying to find himself by trying out another religion besides Judisiam. The end of the book was not accessiable at all,with the girl going off into an other-wordly experience merely by chanting from a book about the Kabballah (btw,there is ALOT of chanting in this story). If you want to read something that is not really at all what you expected it to be,I suggest this book.
Rating: 
Summary: beautiful, only slightly mental.
Review: the book does start out very nicely; story of the underdog becoming a winner, getting well-deserved praise, etc.then, we get to know the girl's surroundings: her mom and dad, and her brother, and suddenly they're as much a part of the book as any. it becomes sort of like '24', at a point: the book splitting to frames and describing all four characters individually. and then, they don't seem close at all. they are very much into their own spirituality, their own ideas of perfection and closeness to god. there's the father, who stays the same throughout the entire book. there's the mother, who goes from a certain moderation to an extreme. the brother, exploring the world. eliza naumann - being lead by her father through an unknown path like a blindfolded sheep. there is not a lot of love there, except for the constant search for knowledge. the book is very impressive, in many ways: beautiful writing, interesting processes, gives a new perspective to linguistics and mystiscism. however, as each character progresses, there's an obvious distance between the reader and the events, and there are things in the book that might disturb the casual reader.
Rating:
Summary: An unusual tale ...
Review: Like many readers, I was drawn to this book because of a curiosity regarding Spelling Bees. Although I had a terrific education, I never had the chance to participate in a bee; reading about the experience is the closest I'll get! That said, this book is only marginally about Spelling Bees. Beyond that point, I have to conclude that the book will find only a particular niche of readers. I myself am not Jewish, and was totally lost in the background of this story. It was interesting to discover the existence of a religion that views letters as the conduit to the divine, but my appreciation of the story was necessarily limited to the characters. Many readers have divided their reactions character by character: Eliza; Saul; Miriam and Aaron. I am intrigued by the fact that I seem to be the only one who reacted to the relationship between the two main characters, Eliza and Saul. You can't follow Eliza without acknowledging how much her father is directing her path; you can't help but wince as his interference causes her to trip in the spotlight. Saul is painted as a character who has generally given in to his needs in a manner that is terribly unappealing; the way he inflicts his needs on his compliant daughter should make any parent shudder. How can a religious man be so uncontrollably selfish? Yet our main character, the young Eliza, is so innocent that she basks in his attention. I especially like the scene where the two bond over cake, hiding the evidence when they discover they've eaten the entire treat. I would have enjoyed the novel so much more if the father's role had been genuinely loving; the way he used his daughter, purportedly for religious enlightenment, was too disturbing for me. If this were a tv show, I would suggest dumping the three dark characters, and spinning off the delightful Eliza into her own show. This spunky young lady deserves our attention; she has chutzpah!
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated, Boring Novel
Review: The book starts off very promising, but then goes down from there. I was much more interested with Eliza and her involvement with the spelling bees and wished it had stayed with that. But no, it goes off on on strange, esoteric topics that I had no interest in. None of the characters' stories end up feeling very developed, and I did not care about any of them (except perhaps Eliza). Rarely do I give up on novels, but I with this one, I ended up skipping about 80 pages just to get to the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Spellbinding Bee
Review: Amazingly written by Myla Goldberg. The family is sure weird with problems affecting this entire family. Spelling bee is only one of many more complex and hard conflicts that this family has to face.
Religion, family stability, psychology and gender equality are among the conflict that this Jews family has to face.
Rating: 
Summary: The 'A-ness' of A
Review: Most people, I think, can remember taking part in spelling bees, if only just one at the classroom level. But what about the exceptional speller, the one who continues on to the real contests at regional, state, and national level? Is there something fundamentally different about such a person? Or, perhaps, is that person forced into a life of near slavery to the mastery of the idiosyncrasies of the English language by a parent or teacher who sees in the child a vision of their own immortality? The first portion of this book begins the investigation of just such questions, as we follow Eliza Naumann through her first experience with the culture of the spelling bee, finding that she has a talent for this, though in all other subjects she is merely average. Her family had always considered her to be something of the dunce of the family, with a lawyer mother, a Hebrew scholar father, and an academically high-achieving brother. Finally being good at something is a new experience for her, and the praise and attention she receives from her family is a major boost to her ego. As she travels along the bee contest route, from local to national, she starts to flower into the fully functional person she can be. The environment of the spelling bees is well captured: the gut wrenching tension, the idiosyncrasies of the other contestants waiting their turn, the appearance to the contestants of all the bee organizers/helpers, the sheer luck of the draw as each word is selected. But once the story continues beyond the first national championship, it begins to take on an entirely different flavor, as Eliza's brother begins searching for an alternative religion, her mother is revealed as having kleptomaniac traits, and her father starts introducing her to the mysticism of Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia. As each person continues down their chosen paths, all of them become more and more entangled in their own version of mysticism and self-hypnosis. The father is revealed as the spider at the heart of this lair of oddness, driving each of the family members in their own way towards the same end point. Here is where I think the novel fails, as this single subject takes over and dominates all things in its path. I found this neither believable in terms of its characters nor in terms of an objective means of finding either God or inner peace. The questions raised about the characteristics of champion spellers are basically dropped, replaced by this portrait of a totally dysfunctional family, a portrait seen many times before in other books. Eliza's final action at the end of this book is obviously predictable; so is the final status of the family. A sad end to what started as such a promising book. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting and Worth A Read
Review: I found Bee Season to be a slow started that really captivated you once you knew enough about the characters. The store is about your average family with average kids who all seem to know that they are average. Eliza is a 9-year-old girl that happens to win the class spelling bee and move onto the bigger bee. Her father, Saul, who is a Jewish religious man, sees something in her that no one else does. Eliza's older brother, Aaron questions his Jewish faith and begins exploring other religious worlds. Eliza's mother, Miriam, sees herself as a little girl in Eliza. Miriam is obsessed with something perfect and this brings the story into a chaotic and twisted fate. Once you figure out exactly who the characters are, the story takes off and keeps you hoping for a good ending.
Rating:
Summary: Ambiguity reigns
Review: This was a fascinating look at one very mixed-up family. Between religion, insanity and adolescent angst, there are enough subplots for a four hundred page novel. Instead,Goldberg gives us a rough portrait of four people at a crossroads. The adult characters are not very sympathetic; only Elly is really compelling. What is superb in the novel is the tone the author uses to describe such things as spelling bee culture, teachers, temples. She is much better with ideas than with the consequences of familial devastation. Much is left unresolved- does Elly have a real mystical experience, what will happen to the mother and will Aaron really convert? However, I liked this novel because it was different. It described the way religion is all consuming and the way parents sometimes use their children for their own ego drives quite thoughtfully. I found this a provocative read.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated and Disappointing
Review: I enjoyed the early part of this book, as Eliza worked her way up to the national spelling bee, and her family shifted, kaleidoscope-like, in accommodation of her new status. It was well-written and insightful about personalities and family relationships, and raised hopes that it would develop these characters and themes in an interesting way. But after that, I became more and more impatient and bored as the story grew more and more contrived and forced. Aaron's rebellion and embrace of the Hare Krishna cult did not rise above cliche, and the depiction of the conflict this produced between him and his father was sketchy and without any originality. Miriam's madness was also sketchily treated, and the notion that it could have pervaded her life so fully for so long without her family having any knowledge of it was not credible. The author labored at length and with obvious effort to render believable the mystical effect that letters had for 9-year-old Eliza, but I could not believe it for a moment. The description of her transcendent mystical experience was so labored and tedious that I almost stopped reading, even with the end of the story in sight. It was around then that I began to fear we were in for a "Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" ending, and so it proved to be. Although the writing was graceful and pleasing, the contrived plotting and heavy-handed mysticism was a real turn-off. I'm surprised that so many people liked this book.
Rating:
Summary: Starts softly, and builds to a crescendo.....
Review: It began simply, and drew me in. Eliza, a young girl seemingly destined for mediocrity, reveals an interesting talent. Her family members adapt to accommmodate her new standing, but the adaptation proves traumatic, and disrupts the delicate balance that has evolved. The characterizations are rich, the internal dialogue compelling. Set against the spiritual backdrop of Jewish mysticism, the pitch develops dramatically. I would love to see this developed into a screenplay - but only if Spielberg does it. Stephen - if you're listening, stay close to the plot line. It's a winner.
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