A friend and I swapped a bunch of books that we were finished with and this is one of the ones she gave me. It's something I probably wouldn't have picked up otherwise, but it turned out to be very very good. From the back of the book and the first few chapters you'd think it was a book about an average adolescent girl who unexpectedly wins a spelling bee, and how that affects relationships in her dysfunctional family. It takes off from there into a lot of surprising territory, so keep reading!

The one real criticism I had of it was that Eliza's level of comprehension seems well beyond her age, but it was such an interesting book, that I was willing to overlook that.

I am passing it on to another friend who I think will find it interesting as well.

Eliza , a nine-year-old, wins district spelling bee and her dad sees it as a sign of future greatness. He takes her on as a kind of student (displacing Aaron who then embarks upon a lone quest for spiritual fulfillment. Family problems abound.

Goldberg is a good writer (first novel) and this is more than a coming of age novel. The ending is pretty startling and unconventional.

The last third delves heavily into Kabbalistic teachings that will lose most readers (or maybe it's just me.) And I have a hard time believing, like other reviewers, that Eliza, who was before a lackluster student, would suddenly grasp esoteric principles of Hebrew mysticism.

Worth reading.

RELEASE NOTES: released 9/31/04 at the Dodge Poetry Festival in Somerville, NJ.