This book was so disconcerting to me, that I had to go to other book reviews to see what other people thought. This is considered a brilliant first book by Goldberg, and I have to admit it was well written and drew me into the lives of these four family members. Eliza the 5th grader is the catalyst for the whole story. Though she is an average student, she surprisingly wins a series of spelling bees. Her father Saul starts working with her on her spelling, neglecting his son Aaron in the process, who looks elsewhere for guidance and happiness. Her mother is a lawyer, who is distant from the family, but gets her kicks from shoplifting. Though I was intrigued, I had a hard time listening to what seemed like the total falling apart of this family and the individuals in it. One of my colleagues had written a book review of this and felt it ended on a hopeful note. I think the note was too quiet to give me any real hope for this family. I also found the discussion of a book club on this book online, and found their thoughts and concerns aligned with mine. For instance, they felt they did not know enough about Jewish mysticism, to be able to evaluate some of the events in the book. This book club was also disconcerted by the ending. I did like the inside view of the spelling bee competitions. The New York Times book review commented, that Goldberg seemed to approach spelling bees like beauty pagents for nerds.
(Finished listening to 4/11/06)
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