Such a surprisingly good novel about family, faith, tradition and growing up.

I really do not want to read this book at all. I wish I didn't own it. I was hoping it'd get lost somehow in the move to Brooklyn, but nope.... here it is.

At least I managed to unload n  The Sweet Hereaftern on Mindee when she left on vacation to Spain.... I should've slipped Bee Season into her bag too, while I was at it. anyone else looking for reading material to take on the plane? It's totally cool if you don't bring it back. Yeah, I've heard this is really good. Everyone loves it. Haven't read it myself yet, but -- no, seriously, it's totally cool. Take it! If I were going to read it, I would've by now.... Really!

This book has lived with me now in five different locations. My interest in reading it decreases each time I move.

Is this book good? Does anyone know? Also, do you want to borrow it?

Every so often you find THAT book. The one you treasure and want to spend every night with. The one whose characters become like family and friends. The one whose language is so beautiful you find yourself reading passages aloud to others because you want to share the words with the world. And in the case of The Bee

Sometimes when a person I've just met or a well-meaning family member talks about my future children, I stop to correct them. "Oh, no, I don't want kids," I say, laughing breezily to lighten this very personal revelation. This answer garners one of two responses, neither of which are very polite. Either my conversation partner will look at me with eyes of wisdom and upraised chin and say, "You're young, you'll change your mind," or they'll screech "WHAT???!!! Yes. You do!"

But I don't want kids and probably never will, and it's not a shoot from the hip folly of youth sort of idea but a decision I've given a lot of thought to. My family history is a potpourri of unpleasant genes that I would hate to pass on to another human being. The world is overpopulated enough as it is. Plus I am almost certain that I would be the Ayelet Waldman mother who resents her kids at least half of the time for taking energy and focus away from her relationship with her husband.

Above all, I have never had that "maternal instinct." It's just not there. In my early teens I was sometimes forced to babysit for my younger cousins with my sister. I would lay on the couch and read and dole out snacks, counting the minutes until my aunt and uncle came home, while my sister picked up the kids and played and changed their diapers and talked so easily in those baby voices that I refused (and still do refuse) to use. Kids can be cute, but I don't want to spend too much time with them.

Some of us are meant to be parents. Some of us are not. And I think it's better for those of us who are not to recognize that before we screw up the next generation.

Bee Season is an entire book about what happens when two people who shouldn't have kids go ahead and have kids. Predictably, the kids are treated as appendages, unconsciously encouraged to compete with each other for their parents' favor (which isn't even favor so much as just attention) while their parents try to make themselves whole. The Naumann household is something of a worst case scenario. But it should be required reading for those You Really Want Children, Yes You Do! people.

Goldberg's depiction of the brother/sister relationship between the Naumann kids, Eliza and Aaron, is perfect. Before they got to the age where they realized they were in competition to be the smartest, most worthy child, they were a team, scheming to get the best pieces of cake in the synagogue. It's heartbreaking (but true) when Aaron starts to ignore Eliza and can't even look at her face over dinner, once she starts winning her spelling bees and winning over their father where their father was previously Aaron's alone. That's exactly what happens in a family where love is based on merit. Resentment for that parent is only a speck of a seed, to bloom sometime in the future when the child is old enough for hindsight.

I also liked Aaron's religious wanderings as a rebellion to his father's Judaism, once his dad stops paying attention to him. There is some interpersonal reason for everything that happens in this book, but the reasoning is never too annoyingly obvious. Goldberg is a smart writer that way.

Bee Season is very well done. But I can't say I loved reading it, because the Naumanns are so much like a real, recognizable family that it's uncomfortable. Who loves reading about parents who shouldn't be parents parenting? I don't. But I do love reading about kids overcoming the issues born of their parents who shouldn't have been parents, and there is enough of that here to make the reading worthwhile. It's more like 3.5 stars.

Should I be honest?
I guess yes!

First of all the color of the book attracted me, then I read the title and I did not had a clue what is the story about. I was seriously thinking “Bee” is for; you know "the flying insect"!!!
Go ahead and laugh :)

Spiritual and Intellectual Naumann family; a controller father, an obsessed with cleaning and organizing mother and intellectually superior son and 5th grade student who probably always will be an average individual in her family’s eyes. Mr. Saul Naumann is a cantor at their local synagogue and Mrs. Miriam Naumann is a lawyer. Their son Aaron is an ambitious teenage boy who is eager to learn more. On the other hand Eliza she wants to take her own speed to learn, to discover and grows mature. While entering the National Spelling Bee competition, she finds her own way of communication.

Bee Season is written entirely from the perspective of a wise narrator. The narrator does not offer any opinion as to what happens to the characters. The readers are left to conclude the meaning of the information being offered.

A new finding for me as it is written in English with Hebrew words.

Absolutely loved the first 150 pages. Everything about how this is written - they way the point of view changes within a paragraph, the easy flow from one small section to another, was wonderful. I loved Jewish plot line, and realized that I need to read more Jewish books. I felt very connected to much of this book. If anybody has any good modern Jewish books to recommend, that would be great.

The last 75-100 pages of this was a whirlwind. I will say that Goldberg writes in a kind of mind bending way. I felt like there was way to much focus on the details of Hare Krishnas, even though that was a major part of Aaron's character. I actually skimmed most of the last section, because I felt like I didnt need the details to bog me down, and were not intrinsic to the plot (which was dramatically collapsing around me)

Ultimately, this is a book about devoting yourself (or falling into) something that is larger, and becomes a compulsion and an addiction.

I will absolutely pick up more Myla Golderberg.

Seems like a flavor-fit for transit rides next week..
I like the crazy-family parts, the incipient intelligence coming to fore, the inner-Jewish-temple content, and the dry wit (if that's what it is), like this, about during the State Spelling Bee:
"A misspoken letter is irreversible, the equivalent of a nervous tic during brain surgery." Ouch!

One huge aspect of this story that bothered me is Saul not including Eliza in any Jewish Learning at all, no Bat Mitzvah, etc.. Brings up the time period - maybe it's set in the 70's? Saul's college days seem to be late 60's early 70's, so it seems it's got to be the 80's. And I don't know when things really changes, but as of the late 90's I know girls were all having Bat Mitzvah's, and not just the smart girls or anything. So that just kind of continually threw me for a loop. I guess the story works in some ways given that fact (Eliza's unfamiarity with Hebrew letters is a basic element of the later part of her journey), but it felt so bizarre and without any justification provided. That and some other touches did feel contrived, as others have said. Which, along with the extreme avoidance of conflict etc.. made it more unusual then would be optimally useful seemed to me.

Really interesting commentary on identity formation, parental approval, and the relationship between the two. It shows situations at the far end of bad, but even so, the way the father, Saul (in particular) thinks about what he's doing with his kids is not that far off from how many/most middle-class parents think about such things, possibly.
It doesn't give the 'instead, do this' accompanying content, which I miss, but I guess that would fall in the category of spoon-feeding, etc.. I guess for me the 'instead' is, um, unconditional love of who the kid actually is, and support of that person - especially when that person's process doesn't carry any parental rewards of identity validation etc..
Very chilling and absorbing and all. Reading it on my transit route currently was awful/perfect, as my route consists of 4 reading-segments of 6-10 minutes each, punctuated by movement. Echoed one part of what the characters in this book would be going through - the real world impinging on their chosen universe, and they're having to respond accordingly.
I intensely disliked the ending at first (having no idea how it could end while approaching the last few pages, as so much is going on), but afterwards, forced to make peace with it (to the extent I wanted to have peace with it) I can see that it's relatively perfect. A person incorporating reality into their psyche and making the optimal decision for them based on that reality.
Am very, very happy to be done with it.

Tracey and I listened to this Audio book together. I think we bought this 10 CD unabridged 12 hour set while visiting Minnesota last August and started it on the way to Oregon for Thanksgiving, and finished it on the way to Tucson for Christmas 2008.

I won't put any spoilers here, so don't worry.

It was read by the Author Myla Goldberg, and she is an excellent reader. Some authors are not good readers, and the probably don't know it. But Myla is really creative and captivating.

We both loved the first half of the book. I would give the first half a 5 out of 5 star rating. I didn't realize it was about Spelling Bee's and not about the stinging kind, so that was a pleasant surprise. The 2nd half of the book almost seemed like a different novel altogether.

I read that Myla was on unemployment while she wrote Bee Season, so maybe that had some influence on the dramatic changes from the 1st half to the 2nd half of the book.

I would recommend the book to most, because it does keep you turning the pages. You most certainly want to find out the ending.

I would also be interested in buying another of Myla's books just to see what else she has conjured up.

Again another amazing read! What a fascinating story that is both extremely haunting and so creative at the same time. I love Goldberg's first novel as much as I loved "Feast Your Eyes" and cannot wait to start with "False Friend."

This is a beautifully written book, the inner worlds of the family members are crafted well, the characters are very well drawn and feel very alive. In some ways a study of a family falling apart, in some ways a coming of age book, and in some ways different to either of those. I loved it, read it in just a few days. It's a gem of a book.

This book is unique in the sense that it addresses a common storyline (coming-of-age while under intense academic pressure) in a quite uncommon manner. While guising as a simple plot involving a girl's quest to win a spelling bee, this book explores topics all the way from mental illness to religious awakenings.

The heart of the story, though, rests in a young girl's observations of and interactions with her family. An omnisceint narrator threads the plot together, as s/he explains the inner-most thoughts of each individual family member through short vinettes. This format works well for the plot and what the book seemingly is attempting to do, yet overall I think the narrative as a whole falls just short of revealing its own intended truth.

The major downfall of the book is also its key strength: it is painfully honest. I often got a sense that sometimes the narrator was TOO omniscient, telling me things about the characters that I didn't want to know. I often felt embarrassed for them and ashamed of their thoughts. While this of course speaks to the strength of the author's perception in observing human behavior, I was left wondering WHY the author wanted us to know these things about her characters. Are we supposed to reflect on our own attitudes about our family members and ourselves? Should our knowledge of their thoughts conjure our sympathies or malice towards one/all of them? Or was it meant to be purely a writing exercise, in which the author attempted to explore her flexibility in writing different characters? Whatever the answer, I feel that I would have had a much more gratifying reading experience had I understood the point of being made to feel like an incestuous peeping tom.

Narratively, I feel that the book does not quite complete what it started, although in all fairness, the height of ambition is quite admirable. Nor does it encourage the reader to "complete" the story on his or her own. This loose plot ending, combined with both the narrator's penetrating eye and sensitive subject matter (involving the conflation of religion, sexual acts, mental illness, and family jealousy), left me with an overall eeriness upon finishing the book. While sometimes the sense of being "haunted" by a book is a delight to the reader, I would not place this in the same category. Yet while I shudder when I recall this story, it is a shudder due to the emotionally piercing honesty of its voice, one that seeks to speak truth even at the cost of human humiliation. And for that, Bee Season wins both my merit and my cautious recommendation.

This book was amazing. There is not a single thing I didn't love about it. I loved the writing, the storylines, the utter dysfunctionality of the characters. I've seen some complaints in other reviews about the ending, but I thought it was perfect. It ends at exactly the right place.[return][return]I'm impressed with how many threads she managed to weave together. The search for something spiritual they all share, the hints of Miriam's mental imbalance in Aaron and Eliza, the way both parents are looking to their children to fulfill their dreams.[return][return]I really liked the way it was told, too. I didn't find the timeline at all confusing, despite everything being present tense; the events of each section were easy enough to place in the past or present. I haven't read many (any?) modern novels that use an omniscient POV like this, and before reading this, I would have said I'd hate it, but it really works. The POV slips easily between characters without every being confusing.[return][return]I also love that it was set in the '80s. :)