The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

People seem to love it or hate it so I'm being a contrarian 3-star reviewer. What I liked most about this book is what I took to be the theme (Aimee would probably disagree). This is a book about how being a person in the world is an exercise in becoming as boring as everyone else by running from what makes you unique. The guy who didn't like what he saw and thus destroyed his glasses comes to mind--one's sensitivities are a liability. My mother always told me I was too sensitive and I spent years trying to be as turned off as she was. If I could have become a chair, I'd have done so and never turned back. My father who was too sensitive was unable to function in the world, his entire life a cautionary tale. Relationships, according to my "thematic" thesis, can only really work by having sufficient built in distance, be it through lies, distance, convention, self-censorship. The closest relationship, George and Rose, is only able to work because they're rarely together and because George marries someone else. Rose's mother's marriage works because she has Larry on the side. Rose says can appreciate sex if it is bracketed in hiddenness (e.g. no nudity) and followed by amnesia. Her actual sexual relationship is with a guy who sees her as invulnerable--a tank. In the end, Rose can only bridge the distance with her brother by making him agree which chair he will become so they'll never have to be separated on some basic material level.

I think this insight, this particular sadness, captures a basic truth about our relationships and about the world of adults--how the stability of safety is most often chosen over the chaos of love.--or else that chaos is destroyed to make it safe. I was reminded of the movie The Incredibles, in which the family of super heroes can't seem to manage under capitalism when Rose finally finds useful work that allows her to apply her special talent to the education/treatment of teenagers.

Here's what I didn't like. The book was way too long, not in actual length, but in how much it dwelled upon the unimportant. The details were sometimes interesting and well described but, like Rose's knowledge which interfered with her relationships, they interfered with the story being told. It made the mistake of conveying boredom by producing boredom. I get the wish to convey the absence of anything significant happening but in a novel, you don't want to do that by repeatedly not having anything significant happening. I almost gave up on this book several times but in the end, I will try another Bender because she does get it even if she doesn't tell it the way I'd have liked.

9-year-old Rose Edelstein discovers that she can taste the emotions of other people in the food they prepare. This is a dreamy, emotional coming-of-age story about families and secrets with a literate fantasy premise.

This book has some truly beautiful writing in it, and there are a number of moments that are so hauntingly, achingly well-drawn I re-read them over and over again, savoring the language and the tone. I did not have any trouble with the lack of quotation marks or or the slightly twisty narrative structure that others have mentioned (although given that the plot itself is very straightforward, there didn't seem to be much point, other than to draw attention to the writer's technique.)

My main issue with this book is that the writer doesn't follow through with the premise, and the story is unfocussed and at times difficult to follow. Rose is the protagonist and the story follows her as she grows up, but we also explore the stories of her mother, who we hear is unhappy and has a long-running affair with a co-worker; her father who has a fear of hospitals; and her brilliant but socially withdrawn brother who is prone to mysterious disappearances. These stories are not drawn with nearly the emotional depth or strength of character that Rose herself does, and by the end of the book I was terribly dissatisfied by the explanations for why these people were the way they were and the choices they made.

Two stars purely for the quality of the writing.

Edit: on reflection I was way too harsh with the two stars. Upped to three.