goodreads | The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Title: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Author: Aimee Bender
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 294
Date read: August, 2012

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.

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.