The Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
Release date: 2000 / 274 pages
Synopsis (from back cover): Eliza Naumann has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary, especially after her teachers place her in the class for slow learners. Her father, Saul, dotes on her older brother Aaron’s rabbinical ambitions. Her mother, Miriam, seems fully absorbed by her law career. When spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazed everyone: she wins…
First line: “At precisely 11 a.m. every teacher in every classroom at McKinley Elementary School tells their students to stand.”
Review: This is such a beautiful, fascinating, complex, dark, and lyrical novel. I cannot remember who passed this on to me, honestly! It was one of three books in my “cabin bag,” and I picked it up one weekend and did not put it down.
The novel explores relationships: parent-child, sibling, marital. But this “topic” is really secondary to Goldberg’s deft use of language. When I read a work, I note passages for my review. In this case, I gave up early on because I realized I could literally turn to most pages and find a beautiful example of Goldberg’s magic.
For example, here are three passages I randomly turned to:
“Ms. Bergermeyer’s voice as she offers up spelling words matches the sodden texture of her classroom’s cinder block walls. Eliza expects to be able to poke her finger into the walls, is surprised to find she cannot. She can certainly poke her way through and past her teacher’s voice, finds this preferable to being dragged down by its waterlogged cadences, the voice of a middle-aged woman who has resigned herself to student rosters filled with America’s future insurance salesman, Amway dealers, and dissatisfied housewives.” (2)
“Sinna has blue contact lenses and big boobs. Everyone knows her eyes are fake because they were brown the year before, but Sinna insists that a lot of people’s eyes change when they go through puberty.” (7)
“When Eliza studies, it is like discovering her own anatomy. the words resonate within her as if rooted deep inside her body. She pictures words lining her stomach, expanding with each stretch of her lungs, nestling in the chambers of her heart.” (44)
I could fill this review with Goldberg’s words, but instead I will recommend that you experience this novel for yourself. Although the premise is a spelling bee and a young girl discovering a hidden talent, Goldberg really examines how we create our own unique identities and how we are shaped by our families as well as by our interests, by other’s expectations and obsessions, how the past is nearly inescapable, and how all-powerful words can be.
Now, before I offer this as a give-away, I feel the responsibility to ask — anyone loan this to me? Is the owner wondering where it got to? If not, I will happily pass it along to another lucky reader… Just leave me a comment if you think you might enjoy it!
I’ve heard a lot about this great book and would love to finally read it.
This book has been on my “to read” list for quite some time and, yet, I’ve never gotten around to it. However, I’m putting together a list of possibilities for the book club I facilitate, and I’d love to be able to include “Bee Season” on it. Plus, as a former regional spelling bee champion (way back in the day) and spelling afficionado (I’m still amazed at how badly most of us spell–even with spell check), I’d love to read Eliza’s story to see what we might have in common.
Oh, yes. I think I would enjoy it! I’m wondering why I haven’t read it already! Thanks for the chance to win a copy.
geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com
I’d love to read this!!
I’d love to read this too! Please put me on the list for this “anxiously awaiting to read” book.
I’ve never even heard of this book! It sounds terrific, though, and I’d love to read it. I’m putting it on my wishlist at Shelfari.
i’d love a chance to get my hands on what appears to be a wonderful and lovely read. i hadn’t heard of this book either, but will put it on my long list of ‘to read’.
As a wannabe spelling bee winner, I think I deserve this book! As good a speller as I was, I was always the bridesmaid.
You are in the running, Renee, Kristen, Gwendolyn, Nadine, and Carey!! And I think I have finally figured out and eliminated the little hiccup that has been irritating my website, too!! Hallelujah!
You’re in the running, too, Karina, Theresa, and Eve!!
I’m always interested in a good free book.
I enjoyed your “taste” of the Bee Season. Please add me to the list to (possibly) win this book…I’m a teacher of young children, many who learn “differently” and need a special, caring and understanding teacher in order to do well at the game of school. I’d love to read this book and recommend it to my teachers’ book group for discussion.
I would love to read this book. Please add me to the list of entrants.
Thank you for your interest, Teresa, Barbara, and Linda! I’ll be choosing a winner tomorrow!
I would definitely like to be included in another great giveaway.
I would really love to be in the giveaway.
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