The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Rose Edelstein: The nine-year-old protagonist who discovers she can taste people's feelings in the food they prepare.
• Eddie Oakley: Rose's dodge ball rival.
• Joseph Edelstein: Rose's older brother.
• Paul Edelstein: Rose's father who doesn't always know when to step up.
• Lane Edelstein: Rose's mother who is subject to depressive episodes.
• George Malcolm: Joseph's best and only friend. A tall, rangy, extroverted science whiz.
• Eliza Greenhouse: Rose's best friend.
• Larry: President of the carpentry co-op where Lane works.
• Peter: A skinny young man that Rose dated at her commercial company where she works as an administrative assistant.
• Sherrie: New girl in town from Montana, becomes friends with Rose.
• Grandma Morehouse: Lane's mother who lives in Washington state. She never visits but calls monthly on a Sunday. She sends boxes of her belongings to the family containing weird bits of her life such as used dish towels and chipped teacups.
• Sharlene: Lane's closest friend.
• Monsieur Dupont: One of the owners of the French cafe, La Lyonnaise , on Vermont.
• Madame Marie Dupont: Co-owner of La Lyonnaise and wife of Monsieur. As the chef, she offers to take Rose under her wing.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Mom's smiles were so full of feeling that people leaned back a little when she greeted them. It was hard to know just how much was being offered.”

• “The goodness of the ingredients--the fine chocolate, the freshest lemons--seemed like a cover over something larger and darker; and the taste of what was underneath was beginning to push up from the bite.”

• “You try, as a child. There was the same old dread, and there was the same old hope, and due to the hope, I ate the piece of pie sliced on the small white plate, with a silver fork, beneath the dual lightbulbs in the ceiling fixture. In my daisy pajamas and ripped bunny socks. The taste so bad I could hardly keep it in my mouth.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• That she might not actually know us seemed the humblest thing a mother could admit.

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• To see someone you love, in a bad setting, is one of the great barometers of gratitude.

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• I could feel the tears beginning to collect in my throat again, but I pushed them apart, away from each other. Tears are only a threat in groups.

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• We colluded in this way: as long as I didn’t announce that I was a kid, he wouldn’t rise up as a parent, and for an hour, we could both have a little respite from our roles.

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• I was with them for all of it, but more like an echo than a participant.

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• We hit the sidewalk, and dropped hands. How I wished, right then, that the whole world was a street.

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•   9  Mom loved my brother more. Not that she didn’t love me—I felt the wash of her love every day, pouring over me, but it was a different kind, siphoned from a different, and tamer, body of water. I was her darling daughter; Joseph was her it.

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• Was it so different than the choice of a card-table chair, except my choice meant I could stay in the world and his didn’t?

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• The world had matched what he’d dreamed up, and he settled himself inside what they’d made. He was cheerful enough when he came home from work but he didn’t really know what to do with little kids so he never taught us how to ride a bike, or wear a mitt, and our changes in height remained unmarked on the door frames, so we grew tall on our own without proof.

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• Mom’s smiles were so full of feeling that people leaned back a little when she greeted them. It was hard to know just how much was being offered.

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First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Family Relationships: An underlying theme throughout this story is that family members bring all sorts of differences to the table and these differences are what separate us but also bring us together.The quirky skills and perspectives that individuals in a family possess can either help them understand and navigate their world or can cause them to be overwhelmed by it.
• Emotions: Describe this theme.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Aimee Bender (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Alex Awards (2011)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3552.E538447194
• Dewey: 813

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Women's Fiction › Domestic Life

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Publisher's Website

More Books Like This edit see section history