The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

by Aimee Bender

Can a book be pretty good, but at the same time make you feel pretty bad? What an oxymoron, but that’s exactly what I thought as I read this novel. It pulls you in with its intriguing story line. You get pulled into the world of the pessimistic little girl, Rose, whose point of view the story is told from. Rose finds out on her ninth birthday that she has an unusual gift (or curse). She can taste feelings and emotions in her food. She knows immediately how the person preparing the food felt. She tastes sadness, depression, anger, loneliness and occasionally she can taste their joy. Its one thing to identify with someone’s emotions, but it’s a whole different thing to actually feel what they are feeling. The reader is swept up in waves of emotions right along with little Rose.

The characters in Rose’s family are an engaging bunch. There is her hardworking but distant father, her flighty mother, a sullen and mysterious older brother and her out of state grandmother who seems to be mailing her entire life away piece by piece. Rose, as a child, has to deal with all the emotional turmoil going inside each of them, understanding more about her parent’s true emotions and feelings in each of their relationships than any child should.

This seems to be a novel without an ending. There is no resolution or final wrap up. Things are just they way they are. It’s a journey and for awhile, you get to travel along with Rose on her journey and feel what she feels. She pulls you in as she deals with her unusual ability while juggling, school, friendships, work, and of course love over the years. Then the novel ends and you are still there - - feeling all emptiness and sadness long after the final page and in a weird way, wishing the journey wasn’t over quite so soon. The novel challenges you to think about those around you and what their true feelings may be under the mask of the smile on their face. It makes you examine your own life and your own relationships and try to taste the underlying flavors of the people that surround you every day.