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Loading... The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (edition 2011)by Aimee Bender (Author)
Work detailsThe Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
  
Amusing Book Titles (18) Magic Realism (118) » 10 more No current Talk conversations about this book. Hmm...well, that was weird. Creative story, but I just couldn't empathize with the characters. (  ) pmichaud | Dec 21, 2020 |  It was a good read, but it ended rather abruptly. (  ) HillaryFredrick | Nov 4, 2020 | An enjoyable read with a unique storyline about a girl who could feel emotions in the food she ate. If half stars were available I'd give it 3.5. ( ) baruthcook | Aug 26, 2020 | This was the book I chose to read for the reading challenge: 'a book judged by its cover'. Judging from the cover, I was assuming chicklit-like light reading, just something to make me happy and kill some time on. Boy was I ever wrong. There's a lot of clichés in this that make the overall taste (eheh) a bit bland, but the main premise of the story is fascinating. Despite the rather glum outlook on life most characters seem to have, the main character gets to a place where she is -I think- happy. It leaves you a bit hopeful, although only a bit. Interesting family relations, too! I think that those are, in the end, the main focus of the book. I might just pick it up again after this year. It's definitely an easy read, but takes you away nevertheless! (  ) stormnyk | Aug 6, 2020 | I rarely go find other people's reviews before I add my own thoughts about a book. But I had to in this case. I really appreciate the provocative direction of this book and felt very pulled into the writing and the premise. But the ending left me feeling quite confused and I spent the last few days trying to pinpoint my feelings about the story. I scanned other readers' experiences on Goodreads with the book and discovered that I wasn't alone. I do think this is a book worth reading if you like a little challenge in deciphering meanings and having reality suspended somewhat. And if you like to read about families trying to find their way with each other, this gives you a good dose of that. But just know that it could produce some ambivalent feelings by the end! ( ) jjpseattle | Aug 2, 2020 |
 Had the novel focused only on this imaginative food conceit, it would have been merely clever - but Bender is too good a writer for that. She uses Rose's secret burden as a means of exploring the painful limits of empathy, the perils of loneliness, and Rose's deeply dysfunctional family. Bender has inherited at least three profound strains, three genetic codes or lines of inquiry from her forebears in American literature. There's the Faulknerian loneliness, the isolation that comes from our utter inability, as human beings, to truly communicate with each other; the crippling power of empathy (how to move forward when everyone around you is in pain) that is so common in our literature it's hard to attach a name to it, and the distance created by humor, a willfully devil-may-care attitude that allowed, for example, Mark Twain to skip with seeming abandon around serious issues like racism and poverty.
Being able to taste people's emotions in food may at first be horrifying. But young, unassuming Rose Edelstein grows up learning to harness her gift as she becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern. No library descriptions found. |
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