Katie-Ellen
Full Member
- Sep 25, 2014
As members are writers, here to discuss writing craft, are spoilers OK in reviews?
'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake,' by Aimee Bender is not about food or cooking.
It's an extreme illustration of unwanted empathy, requiring suspension of disbelief. The main character, the admirable Rose, can taste the feelings of a cook, in eating what they have cooked. Sometimes it's too much, she needs bland food, factory made food for a rest, but even that is not guaranteed impersonal. Meanwhile, her brother's response to the pressure of others is to withdraw to a point where he finally, literally, becomes par tof the furniture. While their father....
No wonder the mother takes up carpentry, but also, and immediately detected by Rose in he rmother's cooking, a lover.
It's a novel...genre? I don't know. None. It's about aloneness, loneliness, knowing too much about people, even loved ones..in the case of this character.. she's maybe too good for her loved ones. Occasionally beautiful writing, occasionally laboured.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/05/sadness-lemon-cake-aimee-bender-review
'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake,' by Aimee Bender is not about food or cooking.
It's an extreme illustration of unwanted empathy, requiring suspension of disbelief. The main character, the admirable Rose, can taste the feelings of a cook, in eating what they have cooked. Sometimes it's too much, she needs bland food, factory made food for a rest, but even that is not guaranteed impersonal. Meanwhile, her brother's response to the pressure of others is to withdraw to a point where he finally, literally, becomes par tof the furniture. While their father....
No wonder the mother takes up carpentry, but also, and immediately detected by Rose in he rmother's cooking, a lover.
It's a novel...genre? I don't know. None. It's about aloneness, loneliness, knowing too much about people, even loved ones..in the case of this character.. she's maybe too good for her loved ones. Occasionally beautiful writing, occasionally laboured.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/05/sadness-lemon-cake-aimee-bender-review