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: A Very Good Read
Review: The story is a interesting and compelling. Its a very well written book and the voice of the book is clear and rich. The spelling-as-a-mystical-art part of this book was fascinating. However, the ending of the book is a bit ambiguous and the parallel stories of the mother and brother were weaker links in the narrative- I became impatient with their stories and eager to get back to the magical world of spelling and words.
Rating:
Summary: Execellent
Review: I can't wait to read more of this author...
Rating:
Summary: beautiful almost to the end
Review: Yes, Myla Goldberg is an excellent writer. I won't go into her best twists of phrase here, but she can work a word. This is a book about words and language as much as anything else. I liked Eliza's immersion into the ancient texts whose full meaning had eluded her father. Found it wholly plausible that she would understand and divine these mysteries. And the spelling bee plot gave way nicely to Saul's real reasons for wanting his daughter to win the spelling bee. The ending seemed hurried, though. Miriam is an underdeveloped character-- I didn't understand why she was as deeply imbalanced as she turned out to be-- but the way her madness finally manifested itself (her adult kaleidoscope) was stunning, and beautiful. That was one climax. A few pages later, we find Aaron and Saul in conflict: another climax piled onto the first one. And then Eliza becomes the fourth person in her family to experience god, but unlike the other revelations, this is just disturbing. With her mother's madness revealed, I wondered if Eliza was truly in touch with the divine, or simply following on Miriam's path. Her decision to stop spelling was wonderfully written, but left me with more unanswered questions. If Aaron had left the family before Miriam was diagnosed, it would have been a better read: he became a minor character as he delved deeper into his own mysteries. And I was eagerly waiting for the conflict between Aaron and Saul, both men whose faith was different from that of their father. But it played out unsatisfactorily, with Eliza sitting at the kitchen table trying not to hear the arguing. I wanted to see that battle, not hear it in the background. I got so much more out of this book than I was expecting. A satirical, sweet tale on adolescent loneliness would have been enough. The mysticism, and the way that the divine manifested in each member of the family was just more pleasure. Dazzling, wonderful on many levels, I refused to stop reading until I was done. But the ending could have used some work.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging!
Review: "Bee Season" completely took me by surprise. I was expecting a tale of a girl striving to win a spelling bee competition but this novel is that and a whole lot more. In addition to the obvious, the reader is treated to a glimpse into the crumbling fractions of a Jewish family in the 1980's as their paths continually grow apart from each other. Each member of the Naumann family compelled my interest and kept me wanting to find out more. Eliza's newly found talent for spelling words was fascinating to me especially since I've never been blessed with this talent myself. Aaron's quest to find a religion that fulfills him was interesting even though I've never been that much interested in religion before. Saul's treatment of his children angered me many times as it appeared that the degree of his love was dependent upon their individual scholarly achievements. Lastly, Miriam's strange behavior kept me engrossed as her motives were slowly revealed throughout the novel. I never participated in a speeling bee competition myself, but Goldberg's descriptions were wonderful in their realism and despiration. I found it very interesting how Eliza and Aaron essentially traded positions in their religious and academic pursuits as the book progressed. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary book.
Review: I loved this book. The story is highly original and very compelling. The writing is exquisite. I'm a writer, and I wish I could write half as well as Myla Goldberg. Most fascinating was the experience of watching Miriam, Aaron, and Eliza each seeking divinity in their own ways. Goldberg took me right over the edge of ordinary reality into madness, a place I've been before on my own, and I can assure you that her rendering is thrillingly, heartbreakingly true.
Rating:
Summary: A mystical novel
Review: A bright red cover which made me curious to read this book. Before I read this novel, I guess the content from the book title ¡¥Bee Season¡¦, I asked myself a question, ¡¥Is it about the season which has many flying bees?¡¦ After I read this book, I was amazed to know the answer. In fact, the novel doesn¡¦t tell you about the flying bees, but it is about the spelling bees. I am enormously sympathetic with the main character of this novel, Eliza Naumann who is regarded as a mediocre student by her father and teachers. In particular, her father abandons her and focuses on her elder brother, Aaron. Until she discovers her spelling talent and then it changes her whole life. Such touching experience, it awakes and reminds me a lot in my family life.
Myla Goldberg wrote the fantastic first novel¡XBee Season, she developed many living characters in different personality. Though the story involves Jewish mysticism that I am not familiar with this aspect, I did enjoy reading it. I liked this book very much. It contains an interesting subject such as Judaism that attracts me to know more about it. I would like to know what religion Aaron will choose? Will he return to Judaism? I am very curious to know the results of all characters. On the other hand, the novel is incredible and cannot predict what happen in the last. If you read this book, you will understand why I think so.
Overall, it is a wonderful and intelligent novel. When you read the last page, you may puzzle what you have just read. You need to think of your own. How unique the ending is!
Rating:
Summary: A mystical novel
Review: A bright red cover which made me curious to read this book. Before I read this novel, I guess the content from the book title 'Bee Season', I asked myself a question, 'Is it about the season which has many flying bees?' After I read this book, I was amazed to know the answer. In fact, the novel doesn't tell you about the flying bees, but it is about the spelling bees. I am enormously sympathetic with the main character of this novel, Eliza Naumann who is regarded as a mediocre student by her father and teachers. In particular, her father abandons her and focuses on her elder brother, Aaron. Until she discovers her spelling talent and then it changes her whole life. Such touching experience, it awakes and reminds me a lot in my family life. Myla Goldberg wrote the fantastic first novel--Bee Season, she developed many living characters in different personality. Though the story involves Jewish mysticism that I am not familiar with this aspect, I did enjoy reading it. I liked this book very much. It contains an interesting subject such as Judaism that attracts me to know more about it. I would like to know what religion Aaron will choose? Will he return to Judaism? I am very curious to know the results of all characters. On the other hand, the novel is incredible and cannot predict what happen in the last. If you read this book, you will understand why I think so. Overall, it is a wonderful and intelligent novel. When you read the last page, you may puzzle what you have just read. You need to think of your own. How unique the ending is!
Rating:
Summary: Rocked My World!
Review: This book rocked my world. The writing is so intimate and careful, that the reader is pulled in to this life immediately. The characters are all so complex. You sympathize with each and everyone of them as the disfunction of this family plays out. I love that the story is centered around the main character's success, or lack of, in something as trivial and benign as spelling. Myla Goldberg takes the idea of a spelling bee and how this young girl thinks of herself to so many more levels than the reader ever thinks of. The twists in each character's story are delicately portrayed, and I, for one, was sad that the book was over at the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Growing up is hard to do
Review: Having just finished Bee Season, I'm left with the thought that Eliza "did it on her own." She took her life in her own hands, forsaking no one (save her father perhaps) and became in control of her own destiny. Her passage is a metaphor for growing up--things are rocky and hard. Life's realities (a sick mother, a doting father, a teenaged brother who is exerting his own independence) are sometimes hard to take. She does what she can and finds comfort in achieving on her own time, not someone elses. I won't give away the ending, but in the end Eliza knows what is important. It's personal achievement, not someone elses notion of achievement (like winning a spelling bee). Her brother, Aaron, is on a quest too, but I got the impression that he will take longer to get to the same conclusion--that it will take some years before he "grows up." Not that his pursuits aren't real, they are just born out of a bitter seed--teenage desparation and years of painful memories. His soil isn't as fertile as Eliza's and he's older. In the end, I feel the most sorry for the parents, especially Saul. I wonder if he will grow up to be not so "clueless" as one reviewer put it. He always seems to have a solution to a problem, but his answers don't match the reality around him Miriam was fascinating but a bit one-dimensional. I get the feeling that I really didn't get to know her. However, I could very much relate to her estrangement and restlessness. I don't hold out much hope for her recovery. All in all, a very good book that keeps you engaged and wondering. Beautifully written. Disturbing. And, in a strange way, hopeful.
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