The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender
Published by Anchor Books (April 2011)
Originally Published in May 2010 by Knopf Publishing Group
Purchased for Book Club
From Goodreads:
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.
My Thoughts:
This was yet another step outside of my normal reading habits. I enjoyed it though. Rose is a sweet spirited girl until she discovers that she can taste feelings in food. From that point on her life is dramatically different. I wanted to cry for the little girl who knew so much more than any child should know about her mother. The idea that she couldn't enjoy food anymore because the majority of the world around her was so unhappy! I imagine it would be awful.
One of the things that makes this book so different is the detachment of the characters. You have Paul, the dad, who likes to have his normal organized family, and goes through the motions even when things aren't so great. You have Joseph who prefers to be alone all of the time and very rarely engages with the family. You have Rose who, before long, avoids cooked foods because there is too much emotion there. She sticks to processed snack food so that all she tastes are the methodical factories that produce the food. Then there is Lane, the mom. She is so sad and so empty. We know more of her emotions than any other character because it is the one thing that Rose can't avoid. She tastes it in every meal. She is so sad, and lonely.
The book was well written and definitely creative, but it left me feeling empty as I read it. The emotions are conveyed beautifully by the author.
I will be honest, there is a secondary plot line involving Joseph that is kind of out there. For most of the book he goes through these spells where he disappears. We don't know why, and we don't know where he goes, but we know that something is off. When this begins to resolve it gets a little different. It was actually the part of the book that we spent the most time talking about at book club. The majority could only use the word 'weird'. I leaned more towards 'interesting'. This book is in the genre of magical realism so you have to be willing to accept that a lot of it isn't really explained in concrete satisfactory terms. It's about the emotion conveyed through the story.
This was a story of loss innocence for a young girl. Once she grows up she realizes that by avoiding the emotions in food, she has avoided emotion all together. When she sees what that detachment has done to her brother she sets out to find herself, and really live her life for her. The book ends in the middle of Rose's new beginning and I was left with the feeling that she was going to be ok, even if the path that brought her there was a little bumpy.
I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it for people who like something a little different and aren't bothered by the unexplained mystical elements. If you don't really like books where there is not a clear concrete explanation it may not be for you.
