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botanicals's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
3.5
anatomydetective's review against another edition
4.0
A well-written, surprising novel. Though I am not usually a fan of flashbacks, I felt the movement through time worked in this case, as it really helped build the characters. This novel deals with the delicate issues of bad parenting and religion with care. Though the children, Eliza and Aaron, came across to me as real, believable characters, the parents struck me as caricatures. Miriam's mania was overblown, Saul's obliviousness to his wife's issues was impossible to accept.
maedo's review against another edition
3.0
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.
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.
jennilathrop's review against another edition
3.0
Started out really good. Author did a great job jumping back and forth in time and from character to character. Then it got weird.
hels_archive's review against another edition
4.0
I was assigned this book for my Jewish Mysticism course this past Fall semester. It was a very enjoyable read and I finished it astonishingly fast because I could not seem to put it down. While splitting the narrative into the four perspectives of the family is a tough play, it is done relatively well. The book is largely about Eliza and so the experiences of her brother, father, and mother fall to the wayside in comparison to her journey. I also understand, however, that the role they play: to serve as a physical reflection for the mystical detachment Eliza is undergoing. Overall, it is a book I would recommend for others to pick up.
dealingwithdragons's review against another edition
3.0
Is anyone else getting tired of literary fiction being not about stories, but about series of vignettes in the lives of people whom, in the paraphrased words of Jane Austen, no one will much like?
literaryfeline's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.literaryfeline.com/2014/06/from-archives-bee-season-by-myla.html
bookishcassie's review against another edition
3.0
My review can be found here:
http://booksandbowelmovements.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/bee-season-myla-goldberg-and-her-tights/
http://booksandbowelmovements.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/bee-season-myla-goldberg-and-her-tights/
brokensporty's review against another edition
4.0
Book Club Read
Overall, this book covered coming of age, spiritual awakening, mental illness, and the gamut of family dynamics. Some of the scenarios are far-fetched, but the characters were interesting enough to keep me reading.
The son and daughter were doing what kids do, trying to find their place in the world.
The father was trying to force his quest for transcendence onto the kids and focused all of his spare time and effort toward his son because his daughter didn't have any special abilities that he could see. He dropped his son like a hot potato at the first sign of something special in his daughter and focused ALL of his time and energy on her.
The mother was raised detached and came out of it detached and mentally ill. She did an excellent job of covering it up while descending deeper and deeper into madness until she wasn't in control enough to cover her tracks.
The story ended with a powerful moment for the daughter, but left a lot of unanswered questions for the family. Like real life, families have their differences, kids grow up and find their own way, and life goes on.
Side Note: I know little to nothing of Judaism and it was very informative about some of those services and customs.
Overall, this book covered coming of age, spiritual awakening, mental illness, and the gamut of family dynamics. Some of the scenarios are far-fetched, but the characters were interesting enough to keep me reading.
The son and daughter were doing what kids do, trying to find their place in the world.
The father was trying to force his quest for transcendence onto the kids and focused all of his spare time and effort toward his son because his daughter didn't have any special abilities that he could see. He dropped his son like a hot potato at the first sign of something special in his daughter and focused ALL of his time and energy on her.
The mother was raised detached and came out of it detached and mentally ill. She did an excellent job of covering it up while descending deeper and deeper into madness until she wasn't in control enough to cover her tracks.
The story ended with a powerful moment for the daughter, but left a lot of unanswered questions for the family. Like real life, families have their differences, kids grow up and find their own way, and life goes on.
Side Note: I know little to nothing of Judaism and it was very informative about some of those services and customs.
melanie_reads's review against another edition
3.0
While I enjoyed this book when I was reading it, I do not think that it will stay with me in a year or two.