The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

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Aimee Bender

On the eve of her ninth birthday, Rose Edelstein 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 slice. All at once her cheerful, can-do mother tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes perilous. Anything can be revealed at any meal. Rose’s gift forces her to confront the truth behind her family’s emotions – her mother’s sadness, her father’s detachment and her brother’s clash with the world. But as Rose grows up, she learns that there are some secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is about the pain of loving those whom you know too much about, and the secrets that exist within every family. At once profound, funny, wise and sad, this is a novel to savour.

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title 1

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Judy

Jodi Picoult says of this book that the writing is so beautiful that ‘sometimes I have to stop and taste a sentence a second time’. I know exactly what she means – Aimee Bender’s pages are rich in texture and flavour, and her blend of food and emotion as the driving force of her story is little short of inspired.

Of course, it’s not all about Rose; far from it. As her years unwind, we enter the worlds of those close to her, and she – and we - increasingly begin to realise how deep the family secrets run. The saying that we must love people for their faults as well as their blessings is almost tested to destruction in Rose: is hers a gift, or a curse?

But gradually we come to suspect that perhaps she isn’t the only one in her family to secretly hold some strange ability. Her brother Joe, for example. As he approaches adulthood he begins acting strangely, drawing inwards on himself and disappearing for longer and longer periods. Where does he go? What is the reason for the eerie, thick feeling in his room Rose can detect when he is gone?

The answer gives Aimee Bender’s wonderful story one of the most unusual endings I can remember reading.

Richard

The clue is in the title. Why is lemon cake sad? Well, it isn’t – it just tastes that way. But not to anyone other than shy, quiet Rose Edelstein. Just before her ninth birthday, Rose bites into her mother’s special lemon cake and for the first time in her life, something almost miraculous happens. With total certainty and unhesitating insight, Rose can taste the emotions her mother was feeling when she mixed the cake. The flavour is one of despair and desperation – this, in a woman whose face to the world is always sunny, can-do and upbeat.

Rose confides in her older brother, Joseph, and he and his best friend George conduct an immediate experiment in the Edelstein kitchen. Rose taste-tests her way through everything in the fridge. The results are dramatic. She finds she can discern emotions in everything, not just food her mother has prepared. The butter has a dreary flavour, and when Rose checks the package, she sees it comes from a giant, impersonal farm in Wisconsin. Whoever made some grape jelly was seething with resentment at the time. And so on.

Rose knows her life will never be the same again, because whatever she eats, particularly home-made food, will reveal the maker’s deepest secrets. Quite a burden for a child to carry – especially when she comes to learn of her mother’s hidden life outside the home.

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Reviews & Comments

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  • What a great idea for a book, will buy this one! love your bookclub.

    Willemien

  • Beautifully written and very engaging I really enjoyed this story. It held my attention and I really identified with the characters. Lovely book, well worth a read.

    Lisa

  • Sorry, but did not enjoy this book at all. The ending was bizarre and was no reward for having stuck with the book to the end.

    D

  • I really enjoyed this book. It's beautifully written and extremely thought provoking. I read this in a day and I'm still thinking about it a week later!

    Marie Taylor

  • A very enjoyable and quirky read.

    Helen

  • This book was such a pleasure to read. The authors descriptions were beautiful and the relationships she described in those special one-on-one moments between Rose and her father and Rose and her brother as so delicately written and easy to imagine.

    Lesley

  • I really did not enjoy the ending to this book, I thought it was very disappointing.

    Karen L S

  • I think the book was good. Even more than just good, somewhere between very good and good. It was different, if you are looking for a light book before sleep then put it away. The book made me thinking, it was bitter, sad and while reading I just wanted my life didn't ever look like hers. If somebody says the end was bizarre, yes it was but so was the whole story and it's all built up from metaphors, especially Joseph's story. I recommend it to people who like to think.

    Joanna

  • I've finished this book and been left with a bitter resentment that I have wasted time I'll never get back reading it. I was so excited about it having read the synopsis and reviews on the back of the book but personally found the plot to be utterly pointless.

    Emmap

  • I really struggled through this book. Thought it was a bizarre tale that didn't really come to any proper conclusion. Half the time I didn't feel the author explained things properly. All in all I would say this is the worst book I'VE EVER READ. Such a disappointment as it was a birthday gift and usually I love Richard and Judy recommendations.

    Diane

  • Being a food-lover, I enjoyed the gastronomic descriptions of the food and flavors, and I enjoyed the book as a whole, but I just did not understand what was going on with Joseph and the chair. If anyone cares to tell me, I would be most grateful

    Francesca

  • I was really looking forward to reading this novel, however, I am very disappointed to say that I hated it from start to finish. I almost gave up after I reached the half way point but thought I would "stick with it" to see what I must be missing, I missed nothing. Seriously, don't bother wasting your money buying this or wasting your precious time reading it! I don't like leaving a negative review but none of the characters were likeable or slightly believable, the mum and dad just needed a good shake up to see what was going on under their noses and Joseph was seriously strange. A too weird read for me.

    Karen Smillie

  • This is one of the most hauntingly beautiful and sad books I've read. The writing is gorgeous, and the charactors both real and metophoric. So the end is inconclusive - so is life! Not everything has to be explained to be instructive, nor does it need to fit the usual criteria to entertain and provoke thought. A fabulas read up there with Seb Foulkes Birdsong.

    Mandy

  • I absolutely loved this book, it's so beautiful and I just couldn't stop myself reading it, could hardly put it down. It's quite unusual to find a book that is so eloquently written, dreamy and poetic, at the same time as being easy to read. It was an absolute delight and I'm so glad I picked it up!!! I don't often re read books but this is an exception. I am going to read it again this week.

    Beth Howson

  • My attention was caught by the quirky title. The only good part of the book, same premise as "like water for chocolate" only poorly realised with a very disappointing climax. Definitely would recommend to avoid.

    Ashley

  • I found this book at first very intriging, but I am sorry to say that I did not find most of it a good book to read. was irritating, is that there were no speech marks, but this might have been the style of writing. I hung on to the book a while since I thought it was building up to something, but it did not. What could have been imroved was where the story went. The idea was most facinating, but it just went down this windy road that went nowhere.

    Terminology

  • Having expected big things from this book I was bitterly disappointed and by the time I reached the middle I had given up entirely...Honestly the first time I haven't finished a book.

    Zoe-Hayley

  • I have just finished this book and Im still not sure what happened. It was a difficult read but I decided to stick with it to see if everything became clear in the end. The answer has to be no and I felt it was a complete and utter waste of time. Im sorry but I cannot find anything good to say about it and this is the first Richard and Judy book that I have every disliked and ive read most of them.

    Su Trinder

  • Sadly, the writer failed in my opinion to fully express herself. She would begin with a discussing the scene and how someone was emotionally feeling but never seemed to finish the thought the person was having. As a result I was left bewildered. Some reviews say it was beautifully written, yes the constant description of people walking down the street getting on with their business and the odd explanation of the brother sister relatiOnship was beautifully written, however, it was not enough as the inconclusive nature of Aimee Bender's writing drove me round the bend. One of the worst books I have ever read and that is after reading intensively for years.

    Farah

  • A beautifully written and engaging book. I think its strength comes from the detachment of the characters, and the fact it is written almost in a tumbling jumble of emotions. I did have to read a few passages over again, and I couldn't believe it when the story headed where it seemed to be heading, but there was something truly eloquent in the way the most unbelievable things were thrown at us that made them almost seem natural within the confines of the novel.

    Philippa

  • ABSOLUTLY LOVE this book, most amazing book i have ever read, i was in the library at school, and i as in there for like 7634897689270 hours looking for a book, and i grabbed "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" .. EEEEEK, on Chapter 27 and still reading! i honestly didnt like reading till i got my hands on this book! GO AIMEE!!!! ♥

    Dominique Bennett

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