The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
A Novel
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The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
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Narrated by:
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Aimee Bender
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By:
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Aimee Bender
About this listen
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).
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Critic reviews
"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
What listeners say about The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Claire Jackson
- 13-09-16
Interesting story
The story is quite good, and gets better as it progresses, but it is let down by the ending. Also the author needs to let go and use proper voice actors as she does not do her story justice.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Sarah
- 08-07-13
Disappointing
Would you try another book written by Aimee Bender or narrated by Aimee Bender?
Sadly no as I didn't enjoy the story or like the tone of the narrator. I gave up listening part way through.
Would you ever listen to anything by Aimee Bender again?
I don't think so.
How could the performance have been better?
I am not sure if it was the accent I disliked or the story in general.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
I was disappointed in the story to begin with and then I stopped listening as the whole tone of the thing just made me feel sad.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 12-03-24
Didn’t hold my interest
Very disappointed as this was recommended to me. I found the tone of the narration very dreary and felt I was waiting for it to finally get going but felt it never quite did. I kept finding my thoughts wandering and having to rewind and listen again. I don’t like to give up on a story but afterwards resented the time I’d given it! I appreciate that everyone has different tastes but this one wasn’t for me and I shan’t be looking out for this author again.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- j
- 20-06-18
A bit flat
I got this book based on the rather fascinating idea of a little girl able to taste other peoples feelings within the food they had made.
But whether you look at the storyline as a fantasy That the child has a 'psychic gift' or as a little girl struggling mentally to cope with a family who on the surface seem happy but never show or discuss their real feelings neither idea seem to be developed within the storyline.
I only listened to half the book and even though lots of 'life 'happen in the story i didn't really care enough about the characters.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tf
- 11-12-24
Beautiful
It is a wondrous world , that of the main character, well thought out and interesting to see through her eyes thé flawed world of her parents and brother. The ending is an unexpected twirl, about the big brother but up till then I experienced it as imaginative light. Sad and sweet tale. Liked it a lot.
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