Bee Season

Bee Season is a novel by Myla Goldberg, published in 2000. The novel combines an exploration of religious faith and a search for meaning with an ‘ordinary’ young girl’s sudden ambition to parlay a skill at spelling into a victory at the national spelling bee.

The novel begins with Eliza Naumann’s first experience excelling at school; Eliza knows that she is in Ms. Bergermeyer’s fifth-grade class because she is considered unexceptional, a student in need of an easier curriculum. Every day there is the ritual of a spelling bee, and Eliza is surprised when she is one of the last students standing.

Eliza is aware of her own mediocrity. Her father, Saul, is a cantor, and spends much of his time studying Jewish religious texts at the local synagogue. Her brother, Aaron, is an advanced student who has already learned Hebrew; Saul often treats Aaron almost like an adult, allowing him to enter Saul’s study to play guitar and have conversations; Aaron had what he believes was a religious experience of vision when he was just eight years old, and has always been very religious as a result. Eliza’s mother, Miriam, is an attorney who is very successful in her career. Everywhere, Eliza sees people who are exceptional at what they do. When she wins the class spelling bee, she is surprised and pleased.

Her victory brings her to the school-wide spelling bee, which she also wins easily. This in turn leads to more spelling bee victories. Eliza is pleased when Saul hears about her sudden fame, and he invites her into his study for the first time so she can study and practice. This results in Aaron being expelled from the study, which upsets and confuses him. Eliza continues to do well, winning the district spelling bee and having a chance to complete at the national level.

Saul becomes increasingly obsessed with Eliza and her spelling bee victories, convinced that she has a special talent that he lacks. Saul has spent his life trying to connect to God; in his youth, he tried mind-expanding and altering drugs, then in maturity he threw himself into studying texts, but with little success. He comes to believe that Eliza has the potential to discover the shefa, the experience of divine influence or intervention. Her study sessions begin to include the Jewish texts of Abraham Abulafia. Eliza continues to bask in her father’s attention and so attempts to please him.

Aaron has slowly become unsatisfied with Judaism, and begins to restlessly search out other religions and philosophies. He studies Christianity and Buddhism among other religions, but none of them satisfy. One day in the park, he meets members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (aka Hare Krishnas) and is intrigued by their philosophy, and quickly becomes a follower.

It’s revealed that Miriam has not actually worked as a lawyer for years. Many years before, Saul told her about a concept of Tikkun olam, ‛fixing the world.’ This prompted her to imagine that parts of herself have been separated from her and locked in inanimate objects. She has spent the last few years wandering around and stealing items from stores she believes contain parts of herself.

Miriam’s obsession with these objects grows, and one day she enters a home and steals something from it; this becomes her new habit. She is very careful, but is almost caught by the homeowners several times.

Eliza competes at the national spelling bee, and does well, but does not ultimately win. She is not dismayed, however, and Saul assures her they will work to prepare her for the competition next year. When they arrive home, he declares dinner to be a victory celebration despite the fact that she has not won anything. She has begun studying Abulafia on her own, without Saul’s guidance, and increasingly feels she has no control over her life.

Miriam is arrested while trying to steal from a house she thought unoccupied, and the truth about her career comes out. Saul discovers that she has a secret storage space where she has placed all of the items she has stolen over the years, arranged in a complicated pattern. At her trial, Miriam pleads insanity, and is ordered into an asylum. Shortly afterward, Aaron announces that he will be leaving home to dedicate himself fully to his new faith.

Eliza, inspired by the teachings of Abulafia and her father, attempts to achieve shefa on her own. She suffers a convulsion or fit and has what she thinks might be a religious vision. The experience is horrifying and leaves her afraid and uncertain, but she does not tell Saul about it. She gets up the next day and attends school as always. During the daily class spelling bee, she purposefully misspells a word she knows very well.