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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.
meditatinghoneybadger's review against another edition
4.0
Great book! It starts out with an interesting idea, and develops in a way you would never imagine. The characters in this novel start off simple, and becoming increasingly complex as the book goes on. Great read!
andhastthouslainthejabberwock's review against another edition
Okay, so I admit that the main reason I picked up this book was because it was about Jewish characters. Once I started reading it though, I got into it pretty quickly. I really liked the writing and the characters, and how the story felt. The fact that it broke away from a lot of stereotypes and predictability was nice too. The way all the facets of the characters wove together was very interesting; you could really see all the pieces that made up who they were, but also how the family was all related.
What I didn't like was the ending. Technically, the ending worked. It made sense with the plot and the characters, but it felt rather flat and unresolved. I'm not sure exactly how it could be better, but it definitely cut off too soon and didn't give the closure I think the story needed.
What I didn't like was the ending. Technically, the ending worked. It made sense with the plot and the characters, but it felt rather flat and unresolved. I'm not sure exactly how it could be better, but it definitely cut off too soon and didn't give the closure I think the story needed.
bradypus's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
cknath's review against another edition
3.0
Written in a style of pithy observations, the ending left me flat and uncertain what the author's point for the characters was.
libscigrl's review against another edition
2.0
Story was somewhat cute, though I had more interest in what was happening to the lead character's mother than to her. A little too much religious talk for me as well.
neurodivengeance's review against another edition
4.0
I've not read this since I was a teenager and I responded differently to the ending this time! Back then I felt horrified and didn't realise Eliza deliberately misspelt the word, thought it was a morality thing about hubris; it's only now I understand why she did it. I felt really elated that she was defying Saul (who is so ANNOYINGLY Sagittarian) but also heartbroken that she believed so strongly that it was her passion for spelling/exploring the spiritual element of the alphabet that caused all her family's problems. That said, as I typed that I thought 'really it was all Saul's fault for being so controlling and self involved' but perhaps Eliza knew that in her bones, in which case her defiance is a less complicated triumph.
Early on in the book was a bit clunky style wise and the writing made me cringe a couple of times but it improves a lot over the book and the way Myla Goldberg describes stuff can be really amazing. There's some ferocious imagery in this that hasn't left me in the eleven years or so since I first read it and I expect will stay with me for much longer. This book feels like a bit of an epic tbh. Part of me feels like Eliza reaching shefa isn't totally believable but I don't mind that too much. Mostly I just want to rescue her.
Early on in the book was a bit clunky style wise and the writing made me cringe a couple of times but it improves a lot over the book and the way Myla Goldberg describes stuff can be really amazing. There's some ferocious imagery in this that hasn't left me in the eleven years or so since I first read it and I expect will stay with me for much longer. This book feels like a bit of an epic tbh. Part of me feels like Eliza reaching shefa isn't totally believable but I don't mind that too much. Mostly I just want to rescue her.
blackoxford's review against another edition
3.0
The Purpose of Family
At least since the novels of William Makepeace Thackeray, the family has been portrayed as the corrupter of those who are its hapless constituents: spouses fight for superiority or escape; ambitious fathers and mothers impose their ambition and snobbery on children who might have turned out better in other circumstances; siblings prosecute relentless rivalries; everyone is driven by the imperatives of family membership. Parental duty and earnestness are parodied and filial loyalty is mocked mercilessly. Families are termed 'dysfunctional' because it's members are certifiably neurotic.
Bee Season turns the tables on this traditional slander. Its four characters - Mother, Father, Son, and Younger Daughter - come into the family, not so much psychically damaged as incomplete and certainly neurotic. Each strives for completeness in his or her own way, assisting or inhibiting the others along the way. But it is in and through the family that all recognise both their inadequacies and the effect of their strivings on the others. Families, in other words, are therapeutic. Families mitigate the neuroses of individual members.
Father, for example, is a theological scholar who feels himself a failure for never having experienced the spiritual transcendence he seeks. Daughter is a prodigy at spelling who wants Father's attention and some social recognition. Adolescent Son tries to recapture an infantile feeling of the divine presence. Mother acts out her inadequacies in petty thievery. While the condition of the family is the arena in which they operate, none of these 'neuroses' has its origin in the family itself.
Despite their apparently diverse, and uniquely personal, objectives, each member of the family is secretly pursuing the same goal of completion. And it is the gravitational field of the family, it is difficult to find a word other than love for this field, which gives them the strength and confidence to do this. Their forays into the world, sometimes bizarre, always end with a return to the touchstone of family life, including the routine weirdness of each other. Each in their own way is 'excessive' but their excess is simply accepted by the others, not encouraged.
Eventually, secrets become public knowledge. And in the mirror of the family, everyone develops into his or her own person. They leave it. But this is not a failure of the family; it is its success. Not dysfunction, then, but precisely its function: to reveal what has been hidden and thrust it into the world. And the family persists in an entirely new form. An intriguing fiction that avoids cliche and provokes some interesting thought, therefore.
At least since the novels of William Makepeace Thackeray, the family has been portrayed as the corrupter of those who are its hapless constituents: spouses fight for superiority or escape; ambitious fathers and mothers impose their ambition and snobbery on children who might have turned out better in other circumstances; siblings prosecute relentless rivalries; everyone is driven by the imperatives of family membership. Parental duty and earnestness are parodied and filial loyalty is mocked mercilessly. Families are termed 'dysfunctional' because it's members are certifiably neurotic.
Bee Season turns the tables on this traditional slander. Its four characters - Mother, Father, Son, and Younger Daughter - come into the family, not so much psychically damaged as incomplete and certainly neurotic. Each strives for completeness in his or her own way, assisting or inhibiting the others along the way. But it is in and through the family that all recognise both their inadequacies and the effect of their strivings on the others. Families, in other words, are therapeutic. Families mitigate the neuroses of individual members.
Father, for example, is a theological scholar who feels himself a failure for never having experienced the spiritual transcendence he seeks. Daughter is a prodigy at spelling who wants Father's attention and some social recognition. Adolescent Son tries to recapture an infantile feeling of the divine presence. Mother acts out her inadequacies in petty thievery. While the condition of the family is the arena in which they operate, none of these 'neuroses' has its origin in the family itself.
Despite their apparently diverse, and uniquely personal, objectives, each member of the family is secretly pursuing the same goal of completion. And it is the gravitational field of the family, it is difficult to find a word other than love for this field, which gives them the strength and confidence to do this. Their forays into the world, sometimes bizarre, always end with a return to the touchstone of family life, including the routine weirdness of each other. Each in their own way is 'excessive' but their excess is simply accepted by the others, not encouraged.
Eventually, secrets become public knowledge. And in the mirror of the family, everyone develops into his or her own person. They leave it. But this is not a failure of the family; it is its success. Not dysfunction, then, but precisely its function: to reveal what has been hidden and thrust it into the world. And the family persists in an entirely new form. An intriguing fiction that avoids cliche and provokes some interesting thought, therefore.
leezavh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. Goldberg somehow makes the rapid escalation from suburban family life and spelling bees to cults and kleptomania seem natural and inevitable. It's objectively a slow-paced narrative but I was completely captivated the entire time and the suspense built really nicely. Some major developments come kinda out of nowhere and while they make sense they do break the suspension of disbelief a little. Gorgeous writing. Each word is exact and chosen with intent. Very immersive but doesn’t drag on