Cathy

Bee Season combines a young girl's unexpected gift for spelling with the exploration of her family's dysfunction and each family member's individual pursuit of spirituality even as the family pulls apart at the seams.

I love Goldberg's imaginative description of Eliza's experience with vowels and consonants as her spelling becomes more and more mystical. I also love the creative and beautiful depiction of Eliza's mother's obsession (I won't give anything away by saying what she's obessed with). But, some of the characters' motivations are unclear or not believable, and this makes some of the plot hard to swallow.

Also, I appreciate that Goldberg is reading her own book - but with only a few exceptions I find that actors or professional readers do a better job than the authors themselves, and this book is no exception.

Then on the positive side, Goldberg's discussion of Jewish mysticism and alternative religion is pretty fascinating.

So, I do recommend it but with some reservation. I'm curious to see the movie verion with Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.