enjoyed the writing. basically an exploration of obsession. plot to me wasn't really there but also didn't really need to be if that makes sense.

Bee Season has four complex characters who together make a fascinating dysfunctional family. They are all bright and quirky. One of their big problems is an inability to communicate.
This is not about the daughter Eliza's skill at spelling, nor is it about Aaron's Hare Krishna experience. Father, mother and kids are all trying to find a way to connect to each other but instead each connects to something.
The ending,which is ambiguous, is perfect. The story is haunting...I was really drawn into it and when I finished, I found so many ways to interpret the final scene. I believe I understand Myla Goldberg's intention.
I read quite a few of the reviews here and think those readers who didn't like the book or the ending just didn't get it.

This is a very weird book about a disfunctional family that becomes even more disfunctional as the story unfolds. Well written, this 1st novel has characters who are difficult to relate to. The father dropped a lot of acid when young and that seems to have affected his interactions with people. The son depicts why someone would join a cult, specifically Hare Krishna's. What happened to them anyway. The young daughter wins a spelling bee and her father decides to tach her about Kabbalah. Meanwhile no one is paying attention to the mother, who has her own strange problems.

*Warning. Indulgent nostalgia*
I have a bias: first book I read for myself.
I found the book on my mum's bookshelf asking "what's this book about?" with her reply "read it and find out". The memory of my young self (9/10 y'old), intently reading steepled silences and discovering new ideas like a kleptomaniac mother, lives with me in Bee Season.

The thing that impressed me the most was Goldberg's ability to flawlessly recreate the aching, stumbling way that families try, and often fail, to communicate. Beautiful. Endlessly enjoyable.

A below average Jewish girl hopes her unexpected spelling abilities will help her save her family. It started out beautifully but became increasingly weirder and weirder until it discentigrated into something repelling.

Tedious.

Oh my goodness, I thought this book would never end. I was listening to the unabridged audiobook, narrated by the author, whose voice was soooo slow that the book took even longer than it needed to. I have a policy of giving one star if I abandon a book and two if I make it to the end, but I very nearly downgraded this to one star because the ending was such a flop. Nothing was resolved and Eliza's act at the end was so unbelievably annoying.

Eliza Nauman, at nine years old, is a mediocre student. So when she wins the class spelling bee and gains a place at the district finals, her father (Saul) abandons everything to coach her to success, and her older brother Aaron has to sacrifice his guitar sessions with his Dad.

There was a lot of obsession in this novel; Aaron's reaction to his father's neglect and Saul's wife's strange behaviour, as well as intensive study of words and their origins. I was really uninspired by the lengthy descriptions of the 'A-ness of A' and how an A felt to Eliza. Then there was the philosopher Abulafia and his strange ideas about words and their permutations. When Eliza sends herself into a trance I was completely lost, too weird.

So what did I enjoy about this novel? Well, not much, unfortunately, but I loved the collection that Eliza's mother made. I wished I could have seen it.

This book was not at all what I had expected - a lightweight coming of age novel with a spelling bent. Instead I got a tediously descriptive, drawn out philosophical and religious treatise. Not for me I'm afraid.

I really enjoyed this book ... it kind of made me think of many of the books I used to read by authors such as Chaim Potok (in its discussion of the acceptance and denial of Jewish mysticism and religion as a whole) and Judy Blume (in that it dealt with growing up with all-to-human parents, rites of passage and much more). ...And yet this is a book for adults and deals with adult emotions and issues!

The characters created by Myla Goldberg are wonderfully crafted.

* Saul, the obsessively scholarly dad/cantor;
*Miriam, the mom secretly involved in a life of crime;
*Aaron, a teenage boy who explores religions other than Judaism when cast aside by his father due to Eliza's spelling bee success;
*Eliza, the mediocre student who suddenly replaces her brother in Saul's study and affections when she suddenly discovers her talent in winning spelling bees;
The lives of all the characters are linked dynamically to each other and I found the book hard to put down because of them. I couldn't wait to see how everything was drawn together at the end!

A sign of a great book is one that keeps your imagination fueled even after finishing the last page ...and this story did just that! As I am writing this I still find myself wondering what religion Aaron will choose; will he return to Judaism? How will Saul cope with his family situation? What will become of Miriam? ...And will Eliza end up on top of the world ultimately -her wisdom before her time seems to indicate that to me! Lots to think about! Lots of fun!

Oh. My. God. To quote another literary work, this book is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.

Silly me, I went into this book thinking that it would be about a girl and spelling bees (despite the warnings that I now remember receiving)... but the book is so much more than that. I think a better description of the book is a family looking for/rethinking their spirituality: Aaron, the brother, who begins to question his Judaism; Miriam, the mother, who feels drawn to things for a mysterious reason, thinking that they will fill some hole she is only subconsciously aware of; Saul, the father, who drives his children to be faithful to their Judaism and who has trouble seeing and accepting the changes the family is going through; and Eliza, the speller, who uses her spelling talent to get closer to God.

This book is so beautifully written... it flows and the language is so poetic and illustrative. I could not imagine seeing the movie, as I think it would ruin the magic of the book. The writing presented such PERFECT images in my head (like Miriam's "kaleidoscope" and Eliza's epiphany), seeing someone else's vision of it would absolutely kill it for me.

I did often find myself, though, trying to figure out what age group this book was written for. The main character is in fifth grade for the majority of the book, but there are quite a few sex scenes and references to sex and drugs.

Still, an absolutely amazing book that I think will stay with me and haunt me. 4.5 stars.

Myla Goldburg's Bee Season is a glimpse through the looking glass into living with mental illness, and a provocative analysis of its interconnectedness with genius and mysticism. So mesmerizing were her characters, I was compelled to finish it in a single day.

Weirder than I ever could have predicted.

Exceptional! I’m dumbfounded at the relief I feel having finished this book today. I have been transfixed each time I picked it up. This is no simple story and there are no real answers, but the journey is unforgettable. If you think you know people, dear reader, abandon all of your preconceived notions before starting on this story.