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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel
Unavailable
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel
Unavailable
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel
Audiobook8 hours

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, 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 cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother-her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother-tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.

The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden-her mother's life outside the home, her father's detachment, her brother's clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender's place as "a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language" (San Francisco Chronicle).


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 1, 2010
ISBN9780307737144
Unavailable
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel

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Reviews for The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Rating: 3.347243431393568 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

1,306 ratings181 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book started well and I enjoyed the premise, but then it went down hill fast after the brother disappeared. It was almost like reading another story which only loosely came together at the end. A disappointing read!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A friend lent me this book with the phrase "Its my favorite!" I took it with a bit of trepidation, but it seemed interesting enough. The story is a bit slow at times, and the dysfunctional family is hit or miss at times. I found the second half of the book to be much enjoyable than the first half, when Rose starts bonding with her father. I wish it gave more answers to what was happening to her brother, but this isn't a book about answers - like life, stuff just happens without rhyme or reason.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a quick read, easy to follow, yet quirky! I really enjoyed it. I just thought it would be your typical cute-little-family-endures-some-bumps-along-the-road-of-life-kind of thing.... And, for the most part, it was. But there's some interesting stuff going on throughout, kind of border-line sci-fi stuff. I'm not typically *into* sci-fi, specifically.... but if it finds its way into a book I find interesting anyway, that's totally groovy to me. I definitely think this is something people should check out. For one thing, there's lots of discussion about food--always a good thing!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a beautifully written book that is both quiet and sad. The story falls under the category of magical realism, which , if done well, I like. Not a perfect book, it is quite memorable.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Ugh...I had such high hopes for this story. While I found the parts about Rose interesting, it did not make up the utter ridiculous parts about her brother, Joe. The characters were not enduring and I found I just wanted the story to end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Neither here nor there on this one. It was the first time that lemon cake made me sad, though, so the title is true.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I was really hoping to love this book. The premise is good: a little girl who suddenly can taste the emotions of the cook in all o the food she eats, how cool and disturbing is that!? Unfortunately the story never went much beyond that... It wasn't a bad book, I did read the whole thing, but I was really hoping for more plot.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As I walked through the bookstore, I glanced to my right and said to the Nerd, "'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake?' That's a title that will make me pick up the book," fully expecting the second half of my statement to be, "And that's a description that will make me put the book back on the shelf." Imagine my surprise when that turned out to not be the case and I ended up walking out of the store with yet another book to add to my pile of to-reads.The story opens with eight-almost-nine-year-old Rose, who takes a bite of the lemon cake her mother has baked for her (as a part of what can only be described as her mother's wanting to find herself) and realizes that she can taste her mother's emotions in the cake. Unfortunately, this new skill does not end with just her mother, so Rose finds herself able to taste the emotions of the makers as well as exactly from where all the ingredients come--down to where farms and factories are located.She finds almost no one in whom she can confide--her mother shows obvious favoritism for her brother, her brother Joseph is potentially chronically depressed/chronically Asberger's, and her father is emotionally distant, playing the part of a doting father and husband rather than feeling it. The only person she finds who will listen and is interested is her brother's best (and only) friend George who is the same kind of genius science nerd as her brother, but with more warmth.But even though he believes her, George isn't always there and Rose suffers through the years feeling, as far as I could tell, very little love in her life. Then she finds out, through the taste of dinner, that her mother has started having an affair at the woodworking co-op where she works (the only hobby/career that seems to have stuck past the initial stages). It's also about this time that he brother starts disappearing when he's supposed to be babysitting her. He never leaves for very long and there is a hint that these episodes might bring Joseph and Rose closer together.Ultimately, unfortunately, however, they don't...which also seems to be a running theme throughout the book--nothing ever seems to be fully resolved. Rose's mother carries on a years-long affair, but there's never any explanation for why. Rose's father reveals that his father had a similar skill to Rose's and that his overwhelming fear of hospitals is because he thinks he might be able to "do something" if he was ever in one, but it's not explored beyond his refusal to go with Rose to the hospital to see what it could be--even though this would bring him closer to his daughter. We find out that Joseph's disappearing act is because he is somehow melding into the furniture and...What? No, really. He melds into the furniture. That's the grand reveal of the book. He's a genius scientist and all his studies throughout the years have left him with a way to become furniture. When the disappearances first started popping up, I was excited that he might be time- or inter-dimensional travelling, but no. He becomes one with a card table folding chair.So that was dissatisfying. What bothers me the most about my dissatisfaction is that it was sneaky. When I first put down the book, I thought, "Wow. That was a good book. Lot to think about." Then, after sleeping and taking a shower, and continuing to think about it, I realized that while it had given me a lot to think about, it was mostly about what could have happened or what should have happened, not anything deeper. It lulled me in with a false sense of depth.The book is written beautifully. I didn't want to put it down as I savored how each word was strung together, but in the end, the characters were mostly static and one-dimensional. Rose makes an attempt to change her life at the very end by starting a job as a dishwasher at her favorite restaurant and becoming an apprentice there, but then the last scene of the book switches back to her visiting Joseph in the hospital before he disappears for the final time. She asks him to meld into a certain chair if he's going to do it again, but we're given very little insight into her motivation for asking this.It wasn't a bad book, per se, but I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone looking for much more than a quick read.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Interesting enough to keep reading, although I kept asking myself if it was worth it. The last third would have made a great premise for a new book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is one of three books I've read recently that does not use quotation marks. WHY?? It's so confusing! Especially when the author also breaks the rule of starting a new paragraph when a new person talks and has two people talking, without quotation marks, in the same paragraph! Argh! Stop doing this!![SPOILERS BELOW]Anyway, this is an interesting story about a normal American family whose members just so happen to have supernatural abilities. I love how differently each person handled it. I loved how differently the normal people reacted to it. I think it's a pretty realistic, down-to-earth portrayal of what life would be like with relatively mild superpowers.On the other hand, I can't figure out how I feel about Joseph's ability... Like, I get the symbolism. But it's just so weird! I was also really confused by the last chapter. I think it's a flash-back. But it wasn't clear to me while reading it at what point in the timeline it took place. That's why I can't confidently choose a rating for this book.[END SPOILERS]This isn't super important to the plot, but every time the family goes to a restaurant to eat, her dad immediately cuts his portions in half and puts half in a to-go box to give to the first homeless person he sees when they leave, which I thought was a really cool idea.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Too precious.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I enjoyed this story so very much.As I see it, we are all given gifts at birth, some gifts we can appreciate and can be shared and some gifts we mask to "fit in" with our groups of acquaintances. Some gifts we never display. The gifts given you through DNA are a challenge in themselves for you to discover whether to share them, ignore them or hide them. Rose eventually found an outlet for her gift in the school system but only because she put herself out there and exposed her gift to others. She ran such a risk in that event by tasting in front of strangers and friends. She could have been ridiculed, humiliated, even thrown out of the bakery but she faced her fears and succeeded in having, what I call a promising life even with an unconventional gift. I also feel Rose outed herself to pay tribute to her brother and father. She was so sensitive to their dilemma of having to hide their gifts because they could not creatively see past them. Aimee made me adapt to a different way of reading, that is reading without quotation marks. I thank her for taking me out of my comfort zone and and letting me experience something that we take for granted, the use of those quotation marks.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lyrical, strange, and moving. Loved it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book. Bender has a way of conveying the emotions of the characters in a way that feels subtle enough to be real and yet strong enough to make the feelings comprehensible. Too many times, when I read a sad book, it feels heavy handed. None of that comes across here, and perhaps others would disagree that it is a sad book, but for me I truly felt the longing, the isolation, and the sometimes depression of Rose Edelstein. Others criticize the book for its "magical" aspects, but at the end of the day, I felt like the book fulfilled one of the missions of magical realism for me, namely that the magic allowed me to understand the characters in a way that simple realism would not be able to (and, of course, none of this story would be possible without the magic).

    Anyone who has ever felt different in a way that cannot be explained or who has felt isolated from the world at large will enjoy this book. If nothing else, Bender's prose is simple and yet gorgeous and easy to get lost in. The ending was somewhat heartbreaking for me personally, but completely in keeping with the rest of the book.

    What I will take away from this book was the relationships between the family members. The emotional storm of Rose's mother and her love for Rose (but her selfishness as well for her own needs), her father's seeming quiet detachment from her and the rest of the family (but of course, a lot is going on there that you only find out about later), and especially her relationship with her brother. Every character felt full and complete (a rarity, it seems, in books these days) and I really have not enjoyed a book this much in quite a long time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing Amazing Amazing. Bender's writing is so lovely and always leaves me wanting more. This novel is about finding what makes you "you" and learning to embrace it. It's about a nuclear family and the secrets everyone keeps from each other. It's about learning to love yourself and your family.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The last book of 2012. Delicious!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have to say, I was not expecting so many poor reader reviews for this excellent second novel. Of all the contemporary writers I've read of this still-early century, Bender is at the top.

    This novel grabs the reader immediately - not because of its (incidentally well-handled) magical element, but because of its very real, very recognizable human poignancy. Like her best short stories, Bender has captured the beauty and confusion of a singular person's life. I finished this book in three days, and even now occasionally feel an urge to go and pick it up. Rose is a character that I know will inhabit my mind for a long time.

    Are there "flaws"? Of course - one can always find "flaws", because we in postmodernity have our established (read: rigid) ideas of what makes a story "good" or "bad", and we seem to take a sadistic joy in using these ideas as blunt weapons. The reason I love Bender's voice, here and in her splendid short stories, is that it's original, in a world where the idea of originality itself seems to have become cliche. She has a great blend of imagination, insight and capable craft. And she has no fear of pushing against the edges, juggling fantasies and realities, scraping at the depths of our fragile natures. These are the marks of a great artist. I think Aimee Bender will amaze us in the coming years, in a way we desperately need.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I was really disappointed in this book. I had such high hopes for it, but ended up being pissed that I spent money on it. I didn't even get to the half-way point. It was just bizarre. And now that I've read other, spoiler reviews of the book, I am VERY glad that I didn't waste any of my precious reading time finishing this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Though I think this novel could have used a little more work (the first half of the story was so much more about the narrator's "talent," whereas the second half was dominated by the brother) ultimately I thought it was imaginative and insightful, particularly with respect to the dynamic between siblings. Bender masterfully evolves the voice of her narrator as she grows up without ever calling undue attention to her own stylistic prowess.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Oh, what a disappointment of a book. In addition to aggravating formatting issues (lack of quotation marks without a very good reason is always an annoyance), this book had a serious case of plot ambivalence. I wish Bender had just made up her mind about what she wanted her book to be. Is it a full-on speculative fiction, really delving into the nature and implications of these powers and how each child deals with them differently? Or shall it stick to the bounds of literary-magical fiction, a family drama with lots of lushly described poetic/psychoanalytical foodie rhapsodies? Trying to be both, "Particular Sadness" failed at doing either really well: the family drama stuff fizzles quietly in the background without ever resolving itself or doing much, while the scifi/spec-fic aspects muddle about inconclusively, providing more questions than answers. Rarely do I wish that a work is shorter, but in this case the idea, as it stands, was unable to hold up a work of this length. Wholly unsatisfying.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I found this to be an amazing story. Although many others didn't really like it or care for the characters, I found them to be people that I could relate to. The idea of a person having a special skill like Rose, for me was original and intriguing. I especially liked discovering that not only Rose, but others in her family held special talents and abilities. It was fascinating to me as was the style of writing. I had very little trouble with the lack of quotation marks and the first person writing that seems to have bothered so many others. After awhile, I actually found it to be less busy, and it allowed me to focus more on the story. I found it to be delightful and ultimately fell in love with Rose's character. I loved her depth of understanding, but I also loved her buried passion and her willingness to see the best in others. I would have to say that this was one of the best books that I read this year. It mightn't not be a story for everyone. If you don't care for imaginative or magical tales, you might not enjoy this one. However, if you enjoy reading that stretches your imagination and has a unique point of view, I think you will really like "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake". I'm very glad that I tried it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book is just so not complete I don't know where to start. I did listen to it on audio and it was read by the author.. which frankly.. unless you are a really great book reader, author's shouldn't read their own work. I am finding this more so as I listen to more books. Just don't. You think you will impart some sort of nuance in the book b'c you KNOW the characters. But in fact you affect is flat, and you bring no oomph to the audiobook. Reading a book is as much stage play and craft as it is to write the book. Leave it to the professionals.

    But this book.. it just so isn't what it thinks it is trying to be. I had no issues with Rose tasting despair in her mother's cooking. Or the fact that she could taste migrant workers picking strawberries. This is something I expect in a book. Imagination is the whole reason I signed up for fiction. But the poor writing and the storylines dangled in ways that made me want to just scream. I spent the first 2 hrs listening and TALKING BACK to the audio book in my car. If I am engaged and listening I am not arguing with my book. There were too many holes in the story. And the disconnect wasn't just in the characters and their reactions. It was in how the story didn't progress. I have read plenty of books in which the characters arrive exactly where they started, but they tend to have a reason to return to their beginnings. This just limped along and stalled.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Finished in time for book club! Woohoo! This was a little different from what I expected, a little more literary, but I still liked it. Bender says some interesting things about relationships, particularly family relationships. She also does what I think of as the classic literary thing and leaves things very open ended. The focus here is character and emotion with not much in the way of plot.

    COTC Book Club selection October 2012.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    You've got to be f*&king kidding me with this. Oh, I see, her brother has a "skill," too. HE TURNS INTO FURNITURE. What a joke. That is not a skill unless you are Professor Slughorn, and even then, it is kind of a lame one. And the fact that he either seems to have no desire to actually live a life because he didn't get into college or he chooses to be a chair forever? Nice one Aimee Bender. Well, have a nice life CHAIR in the closet of the restaurant. Lame.

    And WTF was up with the fact that the whole book we are led to believe that Rose and George have some sort of amazing friendship and understand each other. It was a real kick in the metaphorical balls when she had to go to his wedding. Lame.

    Oh, and the dad doesn't go into hospitals but we still don't really know why nor do we really have any growth in him or any of the other characters. So the grandma is quirky and sends crap to their house? Interesting, but we don't really know why. So the mother has an affair? Interesting, but we don't really know why. This entire book is like one long wish for more explanation and a tons of her brother turning into furniture. Just freaking cut out that entire plotline. I just barfed in my mouth a little bit.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A 3.5 star review.

    I hardly know what to make of this book. There isn't much plot and certainly not many resolutions. It's even heartbreakingly depressing at times. I don't think I'm likely to ever reread it... yet I'd still claim to have liked it. It's fascinating and I loved the writing style, even though I think it would also be its weakest point in the eyes of other readers, because it is a bit of an acquired taste - no pun intended.

    I liked Rose and I liked George. I did not like the rest of Rose's family much, although her father did grow on me even if I did think he was a coward. I think my biggest problem with the book was the lack of a proper ending, although truth be told, I'm not sure I can see how it could end.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I finished The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and it was quite possibly the worst book I have actually finished. I only finished it because it was for my library reading program (and I get my name in a raffle for free stuff). I guess you could say it is "magic realism" (or so people describe it) and had I known that, I would not have read it in the first place. In that, the cover and the marketing is deceptive. It is just beyond ridiculous (when in doubt, it seemed, the writer would tack on a "special skill" to a person, such as mental telepathy through food, mutating into inanimate objects, omniscience through smell - and yes, this is a familial burden they carry, whoa is them), with horrid characters that do not emote, think or talk like any human beings I have ever encountered in my 45 years of life. So while maybe there was a "magic" of sorts, i.e., people sorta like The Incredibles, but with skills that are not, in fact, incredible, but weird and bizarre (and not in a good way), it was wholly lacking in realism. The plot, what there was of it, imploded half-way, and there just was no reason why anyone did what they did, no did I care to find out. Huge gaps of time, a stupid affair only the food-telepathy child seems to grasp, undeveloped minor characters that come and go and do stupid things; and all kinds of inane stuff litter the second half of the book. Lastly, no grammar in spots, and that herky jerky quote-less dialog that it's unclear who is speaking - LONG pages of it. Is that supposed to be edgy? Contemporary? I'm not sure, don't really care, but it just ended up being goofy and heightened my desire to skim through this painful, painful reading experience to make it end. Just a big pile of ick. I would have given this zero stars if I could.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Interesting enough to keep reading, although I kept asking myself if it was worth it. The last third would have made a great premise for a new book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Beautifully written but terribly meandering book. Starts out with a catchy, if completely unbelievable, notion - then presents intriguing images of a dysfunctional family, then just kind of wanders nowhere. It's bit like a slice-of-life movie with a bunch of oddballs, none of whom you really get to know and none of whom (except Joseph) are really endearing.Also, I didn't like the end. She seems to have been trying to make some deep statement (I hate those anyway). What on earth was it?Too much trying to be quirky here for my taste.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this - as usual, a well-written book with a touch of magical realism is right up my alley. This was an interesting idea (being able to taste the emotions of the cook, when eating something) and some of the other "special skills" in the book were even more interesting to think about.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This amazing southern California native, who is a product of the UCI writing program and now teaches at both UCLA and USC, is one of the most unique voices I have read. Her use of magical realism--the mixing of both natural and supernatural elements in a narrative--creates in the reader an anxious excitement about what might happen next. This story about a little girl who becomes able to taste in her food the feelings of those who prepared it (or grew it, even) is a wonder.