A Book Review
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
I was late to this party. But seriously, the online book club I try to follow read this last spring. I didn't read it back then, I don't know why. I think i just never got around to it. Anyways, I saw it at Half Price books (one of my favorite places ever) and picked it up and sat it on my to-read shelf. You might think this would mean somethign promising, but, alas, there are at current thirty-four novels on my to-read shelf. In no particular order, so when i finish whatever I'm reading, I stand in front of it and pick something I feel like at that moment. It's also a "living document," i suppose they call it, because it grows every time I visit HPB.
I suppose none of this has much to do with Lemon Cake (to which I am a bit partial, being a fan of cake in general).
I was not a fan of this book. That is to say, I didn't dislike it. Ms. Bender is an excellent writer, and the atmosphere of the book is excellently surreal.
But the book suffered from a lack of identity. Was it a fairy tale? A mystery story? A coming-of-age tale? At times, it tried to be all of these and suffered by not doing any of them very well.
I guess I would liken it to a chick-lit version of Neil Gaiman. Good writing, good atmosphere, poor understanding of how to finish a story.
I also think a great deal of my disappointment comes from how I judge books. I have very high standards, and I expect a great deal from them, especially ones that win random literature awards and claim to be bestsellers. As a writer, I study plot and character and scene, and I hold you as a writer to my high expectations. If you're going to sacrifice story for scene, you better measure up (and my yardsticks for this type of story are One Hundred of Solitude, the early Jonathan Lethem novels pre-Motherless Brooklyn, and the Connie Willis novellas). And don't play that mystery game if you're gonna really do it.
So, if you're a casual reader who enjoys the magical and surreal, and doesn't mind a story filled with particular sadness (it's definitely not a happy read--in a good way), you will probably enjoy this one. it's a pretty fast and easy read.
With the poking and prodding of a good editor to direct and draw out the story completely, Ms. Bender has the wordsmith skills to make something really good.
2 comments:
This line should go on the jacket of the book: "the chick-lit version of Neil Gaiman." So perfect! Nate, I would love to hear if you've ever given a book a 5 rating?
Thank you!
But, actually, yes, there are a few books that would give 5/5 rating for. It's very difficult, though, because in my opinion a perfect rating should be reserved for nearly perfect books.
But, the books I rated in Goodreads as 5/5 are:
As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel-Garcia Marquez
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I think, if I were to reread it, I might rate Ender's Game down to a 4/5, but it was one of the most influential books on me and changed the type of books that I read.
I also second-guess myself with the inclusion of The Big Sleep, since The Long Goodbye is my favorite Chandler novel and I don't have it rated at 5. I'd probably knock The Big Sleep down to 4 and The Long Goodbye up to 5 (or maybe even keep it at 4).
As She Climbed Across the Table is simply the book I wish I had written.
There should be no shame in a 4/5 or a 3/5 or even a 2/5 rating from me. 2 would simply be average--I liked it enough to finish it, and it's probably a good read for people in a specific niche. 3 would be a good book, one that I enjoyed and would actively encourage people to read. 4 is reserved for my favorites, top notch books.
I also very, very rarely would give out a 1. It would almost have to be maliciously bad for me to go that low.
This sort of attitude gets me in trouble when we discuss our customer service surveys at work. A customer gives me a 3 or 4 (of 5) rating, and I think well of that, but others above me expect a 5 rating for every transaction. There's no way I would give a customer service experience a 5 would be if they did something to change my life for the better.
But that's just me.
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