The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Years ago I read a short story by Aimee Bender ("The Color Master") and fell deeply in love with her writing. I don't usually become quite so attached to an author based on such a small sampling of work. But that story was just that good. It made me miss my metro stop, which has only happened to me two other times in my life (Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson. So that's the kind of company she's in in my mind).

I wanted to read more of her work, but I was also scared. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake was always there on the shelf at the bookstore, taunting me. It couldn't possibly be as good as that short story I read. Maybe that short story wasn't even as good as I remembered. But I re-read The Color Master, and I still loved it, so when I saw her novel at the library sale, it finally felt like time to pick it up.

I shouldn't be surprised that I loved this book, which is about family and sorrow and expectations. It went in a very different direction than I expected it to in the beginning. About halfway through it turns into a horror story with a truly terrifying scene. But then it backs off that and becomes about sorrow again. About meeting your expectations or not meeting them or recognizing that it's time to change them.

Bender's writing is simple and addictive. I didn't miss any metro stops this time around, but I did have a hard time putting the book down. The world is a little bit surreal (the main character can taste the emotion in food). The ending is a little bit unsatisfying, but it fits the story. Not everything gets solved and all you can do is make the best of it and move forward.

The sadness in this book isn't something to be solved. There isn't a happy ending. The characters must learn to live with it, in their own ways. It keeps them apart as much as it brings them together. And that's okay. That's what life is like sometimes. As long as you keep going, you'll make it through.

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