the particular sadness of lemon cake

The particular sadness of lemon cake/Aimee Bender 292 pgs.

Rose discovers her particular talent at age 9 when she eats dinner and discovers her mother's unhappiness. Baked goods always reveal the most about the "maker" and Rose spends a lot of years trying to find and eat machine made foods. She develops the ability to tell where food is from and how it was raised. As she gets older, she has a bit more appreciation for her "skill". This book is really about the entire family and their interactions. Older brother, father and mother all have some quirky "issues" and some of their traits make for interesting situations. I was often struck by the perspectives of the characters when they thought about something that happened...like the father's plot to get her mother interested in him when they met at a garage sale. Ok, I feel like this entry is becoming more confusing as I continue and I'm not doing a good job of capturing what I liked about the book. Suffice it to say that the same "affliction" can be a gift of a curse, just depends how you look at it.