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"Bee Season reads like a spiky, artfully twisted Allegra Goodman novel--it's Kaaterskill Falls meets American Beauty." - NYTimes Book Reviews
Anchor
May 2001
Featuring: Eliza Naumann
288 pages ISBN: 0385498802 Trade Size (reprint)
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Contemporary
Eliza Naumann, a seemingly unremarkable nine-year-old,
expects never to fit into her gifted family: her autodidact
father, Saul, absorbed in his study of Jewish mysticism;
her brother, Aaron, the vessel of his father's spiritual
ambitions; and her brilliant but distant lawyer-mom,
Miriam. But when Eliza sweeps her school and district
spelling bees in quick succession, Saul takes it as a sign
that she is destined for greatness. In this altered
reality, Saul inducts her into his hallowed study and
lavishes upon her the attention previously reserved for
Aaron, who in his displacement embarks upon a lone quest
for spiritual fulfillment. When Miriam's secret life
triggers a familial explosion, it is Eliza who must order
the chaos. Myla Goldberg's keen eye for detail brings Eliza's journey
to three-dimensional life. As she rises from classroom
obscurity to the blinding lights and outsized expectations
of the National Bee, Eliza's small pains and large joys are
finely wrought and deeply felt. Not merely a coming-of-age story, Goldberg's first novel
delicately examines the unraveling fabric of one family.
The outcome of this tale is as startling and unconventional
as her prose, which wields its metaphors sharply and rings
with maturity. The work of a lyrical and gifted
storyteller, Bee Season marks the arrival of an
extraordinarily talented new writer.
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