Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

I chose this novel as our book discussion title this month, though I hadn't read it previous to assigning it, merely going with the positive reviews its garnered from other discussion groups.

What a lovely read. :-)

Goldberg's writing style is hard to classify, but this is a really readable, really captivating novel, seen mostly through the eyes of Eliza, an unremarkable nine year old girl, the second child of ambivalent married couple Saul and Miriam, and younger sister to Aaron. The family dynamic, however, begins to change and shift when it's discovered that Eliza is a champion speller, bound for the national championship, despite believing she is nothing but an unremarkable girl.

This novel weaves in and out of different narrative voices, and you follow the story through the eyes of Saul, Aaron, Miriam and Eliza, and Goldberg pulls in many topics - religion, marriage, finding yourself and who you are, mental illness, and of course, has some zinger spelling words.

I can't adequately describe this novel, except to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am looking forward to discussing it with the book group, and recommending it to others.

Labels: book review