November 2000
Bee Season ***
Myla Goldberg's Bee Season spells a great read
The bizarre subculture of spelling bees provides the backdrop for a compelling debut novel, Myla Goldberg’s
Bee Season. The book’s heroine, Eliza Naumann, is a seemingly unremarkable nine-year-old of whom great things are not expected. Her classrooms are plastered with motivational posters of puppies and kittens clinging to ropes and trying to climb ladders, exhorting students to “Hang in there.” While the smart students are in a reading group called “Rockets,” Eliza’s is called the “Racecars,” and “she can’t get it out of her head that while she is speeding around in circles waiting to be told when to stop, other kids are flying to the moon.” One day her luck changes, and the sky could be the limit. Eliza wins first the class, then the school spelling bee. When she goes on to win the district bee, her older brother Aaron is shocked, looking at “her as if she is a formerly passive dog who has killed its first small animal.”
Eliza’s unexpected transformation — from mediocre student to National Bee contestant — sets in motion a process which unravels her family’s fragile dynamics. Her father Saul, a liberal Jewish cantor, begins to bestow all his attention on his daughter. Intrigued by the discovery of her innate understanding of words and letters, he leads her on an ambitious quest that goes far beyond winning the bee. He introduces her to the writings of an ancient Jewish scholar, convinced that language itself can become the key to religious transcendence. Eliza is delighted by her father’s passionate devotion to her studies and sees her channel to the divine in a much more practical way. “With God on her side, the national trophy is as good as in her hands.” Deprived of his father’s attention, Aaron embarks on his own search for spiritual fulfilment. The boy, who is used to being his father’s proud assistant at the synagogue steers away from Judaism to explore alternative religions. Much to his father’s dismay, he eventually finds refuge in a group of Hare Krishnas. As Saul and Eliza grow closer, the family drifts apart. Miriam Naumann, “a hummingbird in human form,” has always been a strangely distant mother. Now, her secret life triggers a series of events that ultimately destroys the illusion of happy family life.
Bee Season goes beyond the scope of conventional coming-of-age novels. The difficulties of growing up, meeting parents’ expectations and exploring talents and passions are but a few of the issues she addresses. Goldberg’s careful exploration of Jewish mysticism and the role of spirituality in modern life makes this book a highly enjoyable, unusual read. <<<
The Bee Season
by Myla Goldberg
Doubleday 2000
