Book Review - Aimee Bender - The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

This is another book that Heather suggested I read. I don't think she liked it, but she wanted me to give me her take on the book.

I think the book is a metaphor about a lot of different things. For example, throughout his life, the central character's father never went into hospitals. Now, there are a lot of people who don't like hospitals, but that wasn't the reason he didn't go into hospitals. It was because he was afraid of who he might become if he went in there. He didn't think it would be bad, and had some reason to think it might be good, but he was afraid of it, and literally didn't want to go there.

When I first began to read the book, it took a few chapters to really get into it, but once I did, I found I was reminded of "To Kill a Mockingbird" because the story was told from the point of view of a young girl, and perhaps because of the somewhat conversational, somewhat narrative way she speaks. She also seems to always be looking for hidden meanings, and makes a lot of observations.

For example, Rose (the young girl narrator) gives detailed descriptions of everything, even down to individual folding chairs. The most telling is the description of her mother, but I'll leave that for you to read the book. The descriptions are piled upon each other, layer by layer. You hear how her mother would describe Rose's father --- a plain gray boulder. You hear about his handwriting, the columns of figures in a journal, the occupation. All of this leads to a rich understanding of her father.

There are lots of insights into how this family interacts, and these insights allow you to look at how your own family works. There are subtle lessons here, about teenage crushes, about hidden talents, about the ability of people to deny the truth that stares them in the face every day, and others too numerous to mention.

Earlier today, I was thinking about what I would write in this review, and what most sticks with me about this book is how Rose analyzes everything. The central metaphor of the book for me is how Rose analyzes the taste of everything - such as the Lemon Cake in the title.

In the book, Rose analyzes deeper and deeper, until finally she understands even her father's behavior. I can relate to that since I analyze everything all the time. Sometimes I wish I could turn it off, but it seems like I just analyze all the time without even consciously doing it.

For Rose, she was analyzing in order to adapt to her particular ability. Perhaps that is what I need to do - to turn my ability to analyze on itself, to realize and cope with the consequences of "an over-analyzed life".

Hopefully I'll be as successful as Rose.

The book is published by Doubleday / Random House. I would recommend that you read it.