The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

The Particular Sadness of Lemmon Cake by Aimee Bender was different than I expected, but I enjoyed it all the same. I first heard about the book several years ago on npr, and picked it up at a book store in hopes of fulfilling my memoir/nonfiction requirement. As I started reading, it followed the plot line I anticipated—a young girl claims to identify the feelings of the chef when she ate his or own food. Slightly bored by the narrator’s rants about how all food disappointed her, except for those from vending machines, the novel abruptly turned into a fulfillment of my fantasy requirement. I’m not sure exactly when it was that I realized that the book most certainly was not a true account of the author’s childhood—perhaps it was when she correctly discovered her mother was having an affair by biting into a homemade dinner. Maybe it was when she found her brother, after he disappeared for weeks, in his apartment with chair legs in his shoes, rather than his own flesh. Or maybe it was when her father told her that it seemed everyone in their family had a “power” of some sort, which caused him to never enter a hospital. He felt he would discover his power, which would bring unhappiness to him as it did to his own father.
As a reader, I never actually figured out what supernatural ability a hospital would bring about the father, nor did I really find out why the brother disappeared or why he was missing legs that one time. Similar to several other ideas in the novel, much was left unfinished. There were too many loose ends, in my opinion. Although the father’s issue was never divulged or even hinted, I admit I did enjoy pondering why the brother acted the way he did. From what the author did reveal, I drew my own conclusions which, looking back on, was part of the fun of reading.