The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

A Novel

De: Aimee Bender

Narrado por: Aimee Bender

The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.

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.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender’s place as “a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language” (San Francisco Chronicle).

©2010 Aimee Bender (P)2010 Random House

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Odd and oddly beautiful....moving"--The Washington Post

"Haunting....Bender's prose delivers electric shocks....rendering the world in fresh, unexpected jolts. Moving, fanciful and gorgeously strange."--People Magazine

"Charming and wistful....[Bender] harness[es] her exquisite, bizarre sensitivity, in this haunting examination."-- The Atlantic

Still unsure

I’m still unsure as to whether I enjoyed this book. It wasn’t what I was expecting for sure. I just don’t know if anybody really developed or if they just got older.
I definitely prefer narrations by somebody other than the author.

Not the best read, nor the best written book

Would you try another book from Aimee Bender and/or Aimee Bender?

First an Foremost, the Author Aimee Bender, should have used a professional voice talent to read the book. Her reading of the book came across as flat and monotone.

Next....Listening to, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, created conflicting emotions for me. I had a hard time with it; hearing about dysfunctional people or families without knowing that there will be a positive outcome is very, very difficult for me. On the other hand, it was much like watching a train wreck, I couldn’t look away.

While not wanting to give away the plot, I will say that it was hard for me to suspend disbelief; I often read fantasy and stories which use magic at their core. To me there were two parts to the story, one of a dysfunctional family delving into the relationships of married parents; the relationship between brother and sister with little in common, and the relationship of the children and their parents. All of the relationships in the story are dysfunctional. The other part of the story is the magical ability of the main character, Rose, who begins the story at the age of 9 and follows through her adolescence and to the age of 22.

While I am glad that I didn’t give up and that I did finish the story it was difficult I would have a very hard time recommending it to others to read or to listen to it. The pace of the story is slow and the characters were often unlikeable. The mother is self-absorbed and wouldn’t win any awards for mother of the year. The father is remote and guarded and not really present in the family. The brother is socially awkward and not written with any depth; he runs through the story more shadowy than any other character. Perhaps, this is deliberate, but I never ‘cared’ about the brother, so his storyline didn’t evoke a response as the plot twists occurred. As a matter of fact, lack of depth of all of the characters is one of the major reasons I wouldn’t recommend this book. All of the characters just seemed flat. By the end of the book the oddities and strangeness of the family makes more sense but it is too little too late.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting aspect of the story was the concept of intuition regarding inanimate objects.

The least interesting, the character.

Would you be willing to try another one of Aimee Bender’s performances?

Definitely, I am not interested in hearing Aimee Bender reading another offering.

Was The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake worth the listening time?

I didn't feel that it was worth my time, I finished it because, well I always finish books either read or listening.

Might have been a great experience

My wife loved this book, so I tried it. Fool that I am, I failed to notice that it was "read by the author." Bender might be a good author, but her reading made the book sound like classified ads.

Authors reading their own books. Isn't there a proposition against that in California?

Couldn't finish it

It dragged. And dragged. And dragged. I think the story line was unique, but there was nothing there to capture me, nothing that made me want to keep listening. Add with that the reader's bland, intonation-less, and grating voice, and I simply couldn't finish.

Sad reader left ya a bit depressed

The storyline was weird and interesting that well written. Left you hanging a lot. But the reader had such a depressed and monotone voice I always was very sad reading his book

Disappointing audiobook performance

What did you like best about this story?

The premise is intriguing and original.

What didn???t you like about Aimee Bender???s performance?

This audiobook should serve as a cautionary tale for authors who want to narrate their own books. There is more to an audiobook performance than simply reading the written words aloud. The flat narration makes the book seem dull and one-dimensional. It's difficult to hear a distinction between characters, and makes an otherwise interesting premise much less engaging.

Don't make the mistake of giving up on this book!

I started listening to this book and at first was very put off by the voice of the author/narrator. I then looked back and read the Audible reviews and found I was not the only one with this initial reaction. Fortunately, my husband encouraged me to 'give it one more commute'. Thankfully I listened to both him and the book for one more day on my trek from Orange County to LA. I soon got hooked, began caring about the characters, the plot and found myself looking forward to getting in my car every day. (Don't tell anyone I said that!) If you have the patience to get beyond the intial slowness of the book, you will be rewarded!

would not recommend

I listened to the book narrated by the author. it was really hard to make it to the end. i am not sure if the story was as bad as I think it was or if the narration made it unbearable for me. I put this on 2 different wishlists over the course of a few years so I thought I would really enjoy it. I kept hoping it would get better but I just never felt a moment where I actually enjoyed the book.

A wonderfully creative and quirky piece of fiction

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, this book is beautiful in its oddness.

What did you like best about this story?

Quirkiness draws me in.

Which character – as performed by Aimee Bender – was your favorite?

The narrator

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Unique gifts difficulty embraced.

Any additional comments?

I like Bender's voice as it seems to fit the narrator's persona.

This was a slog to get through

I really wanted to like this book but found the story and the narration to be drudgery. Maybe it will appeal to others but just it just didn’t hit the mark for me.