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A review by wwatts1734
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
4.0
I must say that this novel is not the kind of novel that I normally read, but I picked it up on a whim. I am glad that I did, as this novel was surprisingly gripping. It is the story of the Naumann family, a Jewish family that has many of the dysfunctions that many American families have today. The father is a Jewish mystic who demands perfection from his children and himself. The mother is a successful lawyer with a secret struggle with kleptomania. The son is the one anointed by the father as the heir to the father's intellectual legacy and, like many such sons, he rebels.
And then there is the daughter. The main character is a young 9 year old girl who has never excelled in any academic endeavor that she has embarked upon. That all changes when she wins her class spelling bee, and then goes on to win the school bee and the state spelling bee. She moves on to the national spelling bee to the delight of her father, who shifts his favor from his son to his daughter, accelerating the son's rebellion against the father. As the young girl struggles to learn tons of obtuse and difficult words in preparation for the national bee, the family disintegrates around her. Her brother leaves Judaism behind and becomes a Hare Krishna. Her mother's kleptomania destroys her life and ends up landing her in jail. And her father drives her so hard that he turns himself and his daughter into burn outs.
This novel is not really about spelling bees but about family psychology and dysfunction. The reason why I liked this novel so much is that it addresses so many problems that exist in today's families.
The only problems that I have with this novel are three. First of all, the author has trouble deciding what perspective she is going to take in the novel. At one time, she tells the story from the little girl's perspective and then, without warning, she switches to another family member's perspective. This results in confusion on the part of the reader. This confusion is compounded by my second criticism, which is that the author indulges in flashbacks while continuing to use the present tense, making the reader confused about whether the story is still in the present or has shifted back to the past. My third criticism is that, while Goldberg's description of the family's descent into insanity is fascinating, she shares in the flaw of many modern writers in confusing religious devotion with insanity. Although, in the case of this novel, the father's perfectionism creates serious problems with the family, it is unclear whether Goldberg finds the dysfunction an innate problem with religious practice in general.
Nonetheless, I would recommend this novel to readers interested in an interesting description of modern American family life and psychology.
And then there is the daughter. The main character is a young 9 year old girl who has never excelled in any academic endeavor that she has embarked upon. That all changes when she wins her class spelling bee, and then goes on to win the school bee and the state spelling bee. She moves on to the national spelling bee to the delight of her father, who shifts his favor from his son to his daughter, accelerating the son's rebellion against the father. As the young girl struggles to learn tons of obtuse and difficult words in preparation for the national bee, the family disintegrates around her. Her brother leaves Judaism behind and becomes a Hare Krishna. Her mother's kleptomania destroys her life and ends up landing her in jail. And her father drives her so hard that he turns himself and his daughter into burn outs.
This novel is not really about spelling bees but about family psychology and dysfunction. The reason why I liked this novel so much is that it addresses so many problems that exist in today's families.
The only problems that I have with this novel are three. First of all, the author has trouble deciding what perspective she is going to take in the novel. At one time, she tells the story from the little girl's perspective and then, without warning, she switches to another family member's perspective. This results in confusion on the part of the reader. This confusion is compounded by my second criticism, which is that the author indulges in flashbacks while continuing to use the present tense, making the reader confused about whether the story is still in the present or has shifted back to the past. My third criticism is that, while Goldberg's description of the family's descent into insanity is fascinating, she shares in the flaw of many modern writers in confusing religious devotion with insanity. Although, in the case of this novel, the father's perfectionism creates serious problems with the family, it is unclear whether Goldberg finds the dysfunction an innate problem with religious practice in general.
Nonetheless, I would recommend this novel to readers interested in an interesting description of modern American family life and psychology.