Book Review: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

[osprey_archer]

I ought to have done my homework this weekend, but I did not. I read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake instead. It's a wonderful book: a page turner, despite having only a wisp of a plot, with elegant prose and vivid, layered characters.

These characters are the great triumph of the book but also its great frustration. Over the course of the book one grows to know these characters very well, to know in particular Rose's family with the kind of intensity that one only knows people one has lived with - but without ever understanding them. Their pasts, their desires, their inner worlds remain inaccessible.

The main character, Rose, can sense people's emotions when she eats food she cooks, but despite this ability, deep understanding of the people in her life eludes her. The problem doesn't seem to lie in Rose, but to be inherent in the human condition. Though moments of warmth and connection brighten the story, it's suffused with delicate melancholy: ultimately, every man is an island.

It's a book about the spaces between people, the gulfs in relationships which remain unbridged and maybe are unbridgeable. It's a story about emptiness. Satisfaction remains elusive, both for the characters and the reader - I at least found the ending frustratingly inconclusive - but that's a feature, not a flaw.

Comments

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Have I made this clear? And can we talk about how much her father broke my heart? Or about how I was a little bit in love with Joseph along with Rose?

For the record, I don't feel the least bit bad that you didn't do homework in favor of this book--it's that worth it.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Joseph was great! Although I was quite put out at him for becoming a chair in the end. Couldn't he at least have told them some story about "I'm going to China to find myself!" and then become a chair, so at least they could imagine that he had taken a vow of silence in a Tibetan monastery or whatever?

Although they would probably still worry about him all the time. No, I think becoming a chair permanently is just mean. Couldn't he just become a chair on alternate weekends?

I loved the story about how Rose's father and mother met, because it tells you everything you need to know - both about them as people, and about why their marriage can't quite work. (I did feel bad for Rose's father. He wants to connect with Rose but he just can't.)

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

I think my perception of Joseph was unfairly informed by my friend's brother. Orville is bright, awkward, and generally incapable of relating to those around him. Yesterday, he followed me around for 30 minutes mumbling to himself, apparently practicing what he was going to say to me...that he got a stuffed adipose for his birthday. In my head, Joseph is just so far off from reality that it never even occurs to him how much it would hurt his family for him to disappear like that.

The parents' story is such a perfect demonstration of the disconnect between them. But how much did I love the bit where Rose's father tells her that he brought binoculars for her birth? Lots, that how much. I think I spent half the book desperately wanting him to cook for her.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I agree; I don't think it would occur to Joseph, on his own, that disappearing would hurt his family. But I felt like Rose should point it out to him - it frustrated me that her big request was "Always become a specific chair," rather than asking him to stay.

I think she felt she didn't have the right to ask. But I don't understand why not.

The binoculars bit was adorable. But it's probably just as well he didn't cook for her! Who knows what she would have found out? I think they managed to create their weirdly sweet relationship because there was this distance between them - unlike between Rose and her mother, who crowded her (even leaving out all that unplanned emotional sharing in meals).

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I wanted him to cook for me (so that I could know more about him), not for her. Your points stands, of course.

I'm thinking about rereading the book soon. You and Beth were both reading it over the weekend and I was actually jealous.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I so agree with you about wanting him to cook for me. I wanted to know his story! And we only ever got little nibbles!

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

I should read this.

Reminds me of Like Water for Chocolate.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Do it!

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

I've been curious about this book since it came out--and now I suppose I'll have to actually find a copy! It sounds really wonderful, even if melancholy?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! Well worth reading.