Bee Season
Encyclopedia
Bee Season is a 2000
novel by Myla Goldberg
. It follows a young girl as she attempts to win the national spelling bee
, and the repercussions of her success on the other members of her family.
in the local synagogue
and a keen student of Jewish texts; her mother, Miriam, is apparently a successful lawyer
and her brother, Aaron, is a gifted student who is able to read and recite in Hebrew
and is allowed into his father's study, where he plays the guitar with his father.
One day Eliza surprises herself by winning the class spelling bee
, then the school bee. At first Saul is unaware of her success, but then he becomes increasingly involved with her. Eliza is invited into his study to practice, and Aaron for the first time finds the door closed to him. But as Eliza progresses through the district bee and prepares for the national bee, the troubled lives of her family come into sharp focus. Saul, who has tried to reach God
first through drugs and then through study, becomes convinced that Eliza's talent shows a propensity for mysticism
greater than his, which has the potential to lead her to shefa, the influx of the Divine
. He gradually introduces her to the writings of Abraham Abulafia
, a Medieval
kabbalist writer, and it becomes clear that his ambitions for her go far beyond the winning of the spelling bee.
Aaron, who had a "religious experience
" at the age of eight (it was actually the wing-light of a plane), finds himself disillusioned with Judaism
and begins to look elsewhere, first to Christianity
and then to Buddhism
. Through a chance encounter in a park he discovers the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
and becomes a devotee, unknown to his family. Miriam, who has always had an obsessive personality, is in fact a kleptomania
c who spends her time stealing small items from department stores, believing that they are small parts of herself from which she has become separated, a concept she formed when Saul told her about Tikkun olam
, the "fixing of the world".
With the other members of her family preoccupied, Miriam's obsession takes a new turn when she finds herself entering people's houses and stealing small objects from them. Several times she is almost discovered, but, though she tries to anchor herself to the real world through soulless sex with Saul, she cannot resist the pull of the empty houses. Having performed well, but ultimately failed to win the national spelling bee, Eliza begins to prepare for the following year, with Saul's enthusiastic help. But the family is about to be torn apart. Miriam is arrested, pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital
. Aaron announces his intention to leave home, and his faith, to join ISKCON.
Eliza, who has begun reading Abulafia on her own, without her father's knowledge, has a terrifying experience on the night that she attempts to achieve shefa. The following day, at the class spelling bee, she deliberately misspells a word.
) called it "a winningly eccentric and intriguing first novel." Dwight Garner
(The New York Times
) called it "a dispassionate, fervidly intelligent book...that comes by its emotion honestly" and described it as Kaaterskill Falls
meets American Beauty
. It reached number 15 in the New York Times independent fiction bestseller list in July, 2000.
Reviewers have commented on how the book begins on a simple note (girl unexpectedly wins a school contest), and later moves into dark territory (family falls apart). In a 2005 interview at her college alma mater, Goldberg explained her motivation: "I'll tell you how I wrote the book. I did write it very consciously to get darker and stronger as it continues. I wanted it at first to be like this sunny, happy, Reader's Digest kind of read, and to lull people into this sense of complacency and then hit them over the head."
based on the book, directed
by Scott McGehee
and David Siegel
with screenplay by Naomi Foner, was released in 2005
.
' Song for Myla Goldberg from the album Her Majesty the Decemberists makes a number of references to the novel. The band's frontman and songwriter Colin Meloy
was a bodyguard for Goldberg on her tour for Bee Season.
2000 in literature
The year 2000 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published...
novel by Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg is an American novelist and musician.-Biography:Goldberg was born into a Jewish family. She was raised in Laurel, Maryland, and graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. She majored in English at Oberlin College, graduating in 1993...
. It follows a young girl as she attempts to win the national spelling bee
Scripps National Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a highly competitive annual spelling bee in the United States, with participants from other countries as well. It is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W...
, and the repercussions of her success on the other members of her family.
Plot summary
Eleven-year-old Eliza Naumann is the only "ordinary" member of a family of gifted people. Her father, Saul, is a cantorHazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
in the local synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
and a keen student of Jewish texts; her mother, Miriam, is apparently a successful lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and her brother, Aaron, is a gifted student who is able to read and recite in Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and is allowed into his father's study, where he plays the guitar with his father.
One day Eliza surprises herself by winning the class spelling bee
Spelling bee
A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....
, then the school bee. At first Saul is unaware of her success, but then he becomes increasingly involved with her. Eliza is invited into his study to practice, and Aaron for the first time finds the door closed to him. But as Eliza progresses through the district bee and prepares for the national bee, the troubled lives of her family come into sharp focus. Saul, who has tried to reach God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
first through drugs and then through study, becomes convinced that Eliza's talent shows a propensity for mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
greater than his, which has the potential to lead her to shefa, the influx of the Divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
. He gradually introduces her to the writings of Abraham Abulafia
Abraham Abulafia
Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia , the founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah", was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1240, and died sometime after 1291, in Comino, Maltese archipelago.-Early life and travels:...
, a Medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
kabbalist writer, and it becomes clear that his ambitions for her go far beyond the winning of the spelling bee.
Aaron, who had a "religious experience
Religious experience
Religious experience is a subjective experience in which an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine....
" at the age of eight (it was actually the wing-light of a plane), finds himself disillusioned with Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and begins to look elsewhere, first to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and then to Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
. Through a chance encounter in a park he discovers the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
and becomes a devotee, unknown to his family. Miriam, who has always had an obsessive personality, is in fact a kleptomania
Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
c who spends her time stealing small items from department stores, believing that they are small parts of herself from which she has become separated, a concept she formed when Saul told her about Tikkun olam
Tikkun olam
Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world." In Judaism, the concept of tikkun olam originated in the early rabbinic period...
, the "fixing of the world".
With the other members of her family preoccupied, Miriam's obsession takes a new turn when she finds herself entering people's houses and stealing small objects from them. Several times she is almost discovered, but, though she tries to anchor herself to the real world through soulless sex with Saul, she cannot resist the pull of the empty houses. Having performed well, but ultimately failed to win the national spelling bee, Eliza begins to prepare for the following year, with Saul's enthusiastic help. But the family is about to be torn apart. Miriam is arrested, pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
. Aaron announces his intention to leave home, and his faith, to join ISKCON.
Eliza, who has begun reading Abulafia on her own, without her father's knowledge, has a terrifying experience on the night that she attempts to achieve shefa. The following day, at the class spelling bee, she deliberately misspells a word.
Characters
- Eliza Naumann – a young girl, an entrant in the national spelling bee.
- Saul Naumann – Eliza's father, cantor in the Beth Amicha synagogue and student of the scriptures.
- Miriam Naumann – Eliza's mother, who is obsessive-compulsiveObsessive-compulsive disorderObsessive–compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions...
and a kleptomaniac. - Aaron Naumann – Eliza's brother, who loses the Jewish faith and goes on to become a "Hare Krishna".
Literary significance and reception
Bee Season was well received by critics. Paul Gray (TIMETime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
) called it "a winningly eccentric and intriguing first novel." Dwight Garner
Dwight Garner (critic)
Dwight Garner is an American journalist, now a literary critic for The New York Times. Prior to that he was senior editor at the New York Times Book Review, where he worked from 1999 to 2009...
(The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
) called it "a dispassionate, fervidly intelligent book...that comes by its emotion honestly" and described it as Kaaterskill Falls
Kaaterskill Falls (novel)
Kaaterskill Falls is a 1998 novel by Allegra Goodman, set in a small Catskill Mountains, New York, USA, community of predominantly Orthodox Jews during summers in the mid-1970s.-Plot:...
meets American Beauty
American Beauty (film)
American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela...
. It reached number 15 in the New York Times independent fiction bestseller list in July, 2000.
Reviewers have commented on how the book begins on a simple note (girl unexpectedly wins a school contest), and later moves into dark territory (family falls apart). In a 2005 interview at her college alma mater, Goldberg explained her motivation: "I'll tell you how I wrote the book. I did write it very consciously to get darker and stronger as it continues. I wanted it at first to be like this sunny, happy, Reader's Digest kind of read, and to lull people into this sense of complacency and then hit them over the head."
Awards and nominations
It was a finalist in the Frankfurt eBook Award 2000 for Best Fiction work converted from print to ebook.Film adaptation
A feature filmBee Season (film)
Bee Season is a 2005 American drama film adaptation of the 2000 novel of the same name by Myla Goldberg. The film was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. It stars Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:...
based on the book, directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Scott McGehee
Scott McGehee
Scott McGehee is an American film director and screenwriter. He is a Columbia University graduate, born in California, but currently residing in New York City.He is half of a long-standing writing-directing partnership with filmmaker David Siegel....
and David Siegel
David Siegel
David Siegel is an American motion picture screenwriter and director, and part of a long-standing writing-directing team with filmmaker Scott McGehee.-Filmography:*Suture *The Deep End *Bee Season *Uncertainty...
with screenplay by Naomi Foner, was released in 2005
2005 in film
- Highest-grossing films :Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top-grossing films that were first released in the United States in 2005...
.
Cultural references
The DecemberistsThe Decemberists
The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...
' Song for Myla Goldberg from the album Her Majesty the Decemberists makes a number of references to the novel. The band's frontman and songwriter Colin Meloy
Colin Meloy
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland, Oregon, folk-rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica, percussion and interpretive hand gestures.-Early life...
was a bodyguard for Goldberg on her tour for Bee Season.