The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake in Oly Reads

Sep 14, 2010 jess rated it it was amazing

Shelves: food, 2010, fiction, ladyish

When this book starts, Rose is a nine year old girl. She has a mother who is alternately distracted and devoted, a father who's going through the motions, and an older brother, Joseph, who would be hard pressed to care less about Rose. At dinner one night, Rose discovers she can taste something strange in the food her mother has made. She can taste the feelings of the person who made the food - not just her mother, but anyone who makes food that Rose eats. Her mother's horrifying emptiness and e When this book starts, Rose is a nine year old girl. She has a mother who is alternately distracted and devoted, a father who's going through the motions, and an older brother, Joseph, who would be hard pressed to care less about Rose. At dinner one night, Rose discovers she can taste something strange in the food her mother has made. She can taste the feelings of the person who made the food - not just her mother, but anyone who makes food that Rose eats. Her mother's horrifying emptiness and echoing loneliness make Rose's taste buds revolt. To survive the intensity of the feelings/flavors, Rose turns to factory-made food.The concept is a little like Como Agua Para Chocolate in that the magic comes from tasting emotions, but Lemon Cake is much whiter, more contemporary, more suburban, less sexy, and just different.

Rose grows up, her family changes, she becomes an adult, she makes sense of her world even though it is often painful and strange. Whose world isn't often painful and strange?

Poor Joseph is a big loner nerd with only one friend - George - a charismatic, brilliant guy who takes time (much to Joseph's dismay) to listen to Rose and help her navigate the early days of the tasty feelings. George becomes a major player in Rose's life. Their relationship is built on patience and familiarity, but it's cemented by their shared loss. I thought George turned out to be a bit of a disappointment but it felt authentic when Rose caught a red-eye to go to his wedding, to dance with him and meet his redhead bride. Rose's mom was such a wild spirit and weird person. I felt very strongly (almost all at once) that she needed to be free like a wild bird and also redouble her commitment to her family. And the obsession with carpentry -- I know it's partly a referential thing to all the other stuff going on (making things, crafting, seeking love, providing, etc) but seriously, the mom is a carpenter wtf. Also, I loved Rose's dad. He was a subtle guy, but his nuances were endearing even if the idea of being his daughter makes me cringe.

The discussion of eating disorders in young girls was fascinating -- I mean, the school nurse asks Rose if she thinks she is fat, and why she isn't eating, and when she gives a crazy answer (e.g. because the food tastes empty), it's all brushed under the rug. That was real. Since I've read this book, I have felt a lot more self-conscious about my feelings while I'm making food for people. In the off-chance that someone like Rose crosses my path, I want to leave out the hurried distractedness, the self-imposed unreachable standards and all the stress when I cook. Also -- the way that random magical skills are a genetic probability, and Bender crafts these obscure manifestions of "magical power" -- this made the book seem plausible in a way that no book about a little girl tasting feelings should ever seem.

Lemon Cake is as much coming-of-age as it is a food book. At the end, having waded through metaphors and suspended disbelief for nearly 300 pages, I found myself thumbing through very slowly. It was hard for me to finish. Not because I knew what would happen, but because there was no way that Aimee Bender could fuck it up and I never wanted it to end. Toward the end, the least developed and most glorious characters are introduced - Madame & Monsieur, with their restaurant, and their glorious, honest, sincere, wonderful food and they way they appreciated Rose without questioning or deriding her. I love them. I want them to adopt me and feed me organic lettuce and appreciate my own special talents, even though I may not have any.

The moment when Rose eats the sandwich at the bakery with George, and she tastes all the desperate love and longing that some guy's girlfriend felt when she made the sandwich -- that was beautiful. All that shit about Grandma's packages and folding chairs, though.... that was overreaching the weird factor. It was almost too much, but Joseph brought it home again and kept it relevant. I would very much like to re-read this book in 2 or 3 years and see how I feel about it then. ...more

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Oct 15, 2010 Janie rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, food

I was enchanted by the premise of this book when I read the pre-release blurb. I could smell magical realism a mile away on this one. My hopes were high.

The execution was self-involved. Bender broke King's first rule of writing: "Kill your darlings." She didn't. Her darlings aren't bad. I liked a lot of them, in that Creative Writing Class Gone Amok way. But they get in the way of the story. Even when she should scold or polish she indulges.

Still. Bender came off with an unexpectedly complex de ...more

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