Moment Magazine Book Club

Welcome to the Moment Magazine Book Club!

The March-April selection is Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

From one point of view, this debut novel by Myla Goldberg seems familiar: a troubled Jewish family with sensitive children. For Jewish readers, however, it has deeper meanings. Bee Season sparkles, terrifies, and opens new possibilities because it brings ancient Kabbalistic mystical learning and practice dramatically into everyday modern life.

Eliza Naumann, the protagonist, becomes a star through her surprising talent for spelling. As her father helps her prepare for spelling bees, he introduces her to Jewish mysticism. And so this ordinary nine-year old learns lessons about the Kabbalah and Zohar, joining generations of Jewish mystics who have forced open the doors between the human and the divine.

The most striking passages occur as Eliza explores the Kabbalistic disciplines, chanting the ancient incantations that can free the worshipper from the world and convincing the reader that such religious transcendence is possible today.

As Eliza gains power, her family is fractures. Her mother Miriam, always emotionally absent, slips deeper into insanity, withdrawing from the family and creating a temple full of objects she has stolen. Eliza's older brother Aaron is exiled from his father's inner sanctum, because his sister outshines him. He finds a new spiritual home with the Hare Krishmas, whose chanting, rituals, and abnegation provide him a warm community, close to God.

At the novel's end, Eliza takes responsibility for her suffering family. To do so, she rejects the otherworldly powers she has gained, turning away from both Kabbalah and spelling. Instead she undertakes the ordinary hard work of being a daughter and sister to those who need her. This approachable, moving and original novel will spark a serious and personal book club discussion.

—Susan Willens

Some study questions about Bee Season:

Eliza begins as a mediocre student. What are the cause and effect of her talent for spelling? Describe and discuss her experiences in the classroom and later as a winning competitor. How useful is her father's help?
How does Saul treat his children? Is he fair? Describe what happens to Aaron after his sister begins to succeed.
Trace the downfall of Miriam. Does it seem realistic? Does her family make any attempt to relieve her awful anxiety? How is Saul as a husband?
Myla Goldberg describes Eliza's religious ecstasy, derived from the study of Abulafia, at pages 268-9. By definition, such a mystic experience transcends language. Does the author succeed in conveying the child's transformed consciousness?
What does the family's experience at the spelling bees reveal about each of them?
How has Eliza changed by the end of the novel?

About Your Book Club

How, When and Where to Meet

First, create a list-serv for your group. You want all the members to "be on the same page." Keep this list up-to-date because it will be your means of communicating news of your meetings.

How Often? Your discussion-group members will decide what is convenient for them, but try to stay flexible when thinking it through. Most groups meet once a month in the evening between September and June. But your group may want a different schedule.

Travel and work schedules may dictate meeting through April and December, for example, or mostly in the early spring. Football season, kidsí school commitments, religious and summer holidays—all will determine when your members can attend a book-discussion group.

When? Weekday evening or weekends are better for working people. Retirees may prefer afternoons. You might like mornings for coffee and conversation or late afternoons for tea and talk. At the office, colleagues can set aside a regular lunch hour.

How Much to Read?

How often you meet determines what you can read together. If you meet once a month, you can expect members to read several hundred pages for one discussion—maybe not all of War and Peace, but certainly a 200-plus-page novel or history book.

If you want to meet more often, your selections will be shorter pieces: articles, short stories, portions of longer works that you finish over several months. The group will take some months of trial and error to figure out how much the members are realistically able to read between meetings. Best to be honest—it's much more satisfying to talk about what you really have read, as we all know from high school.

Where To Meet?

Discussions—usually about two hours long—may take place in the home of a group member. In some groups, members take turns hosting; others have a permanent home at one house. Consider also meeting in a bookstore, a synagogue, or public library with a small room and a coffee pot. Make sure all the members always know where and when the next meeting will be held; don't forget the list-serv!

The Space?

The room designated for the meeting need not be elaborate, just convenient and informal: comfortable seats for all, placed roughly in a circle so everyone can see and hear each other, with good light for reading aloud.

Food and Drink?

A host or hostess offers hospitality with coffee, tea, cheese and crackers, cookies. The group can chip in to pay for the food or leave it to the hosts. Watch those goodies, though! If they get distracting—too much munching or spilling or clinking, too much ordering and serving—offer food only at the start or end of the discussion or forget it altogether.

“How to Start a Book Group and Keep It Interesting” by Susan Willens Arbor Seminars 1990.