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.
My thoughts
What an odd, yet remarkable story that The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is. Nine-year-old Rose bites into her mother’s lemon cake and can all of a sudden sense the feelings her mother had when making the cake. Unfortunately, these feelings were of sadness and loneliness. From that moment on, when she eats something, she feels those feelings of those who prepared the food. Too understand this quirky novel, one must read it slowly to really understand it. I found it somewhat gloomy, but it is well-written and one you won’t forget.
Disclaimer: I received the book for review from the publisher. I received no compensation for my thoughts.
2 comments:
It reminds me of like water for chocolate. Did you think that?
Debbie, that's what I've heard. I never read Water for Chocolate, but it's on my reading list now!
Post a Comment