A taste of more
The cake tastes odd. Rose can ‘taste’ the mood her mother was in when she made it. There’s despair and hopelessness. From then on, Rose tastes feelings in her food. After a visit to the school nurse, and one to ‘accident and emergency,’ Rose realises her ‘gift’ must be kept secret. She tries to confide in her distant brother, Joseph, but he doesn’t respond. Joseph’s only friend, the brilliant George, is the only one who takes her predicament seriously.
Rose struggles on in her disparate family. She worries about her mother. When her mother begs her not to worry, she thinks, “I knew, if I ate anything of hers again it would likely tell me the same message; help me. I am not happy, help me’ — like a message in a bottle sent in each meal to the eater, and I got it. I got the message.”
This becomes an unbearable burden. At 12, Rose gets a taste of guilt and romance and realises her mother is having an affair. This is another secret.
Author Aimee Bender relates with flair and perception the dynamics of this weird family’s relationships. All of them have their quirks. Rose’s father is remote; and he has an aversion to hospitals.
Rose’s grandmother has her eccentricities. She won’t visit the family, and doesn’t want them to visit her, but she keeps in contact by sending deliveries of broken and obscure junk.
The family barely relate to one another. Rose’s mother spends more time away, but her father barely notices. Rose finds life increasingly hard. Her ‘gift’ and worry for her family prevent her from attending college. She works in a mundane job, spending her money on tasting her way around the locality. She misses George. He keeps in touch, but has made his life in Boston.
One night, Rose returns home late and finds her father with an old photograph album. He talks about his childhood, and an understanding dawns. Will Rose be able to find peace, and a way to harness her gift for the good?
This is an odd book. Some readers might find the magical realism a bit too much, but it’s as beautiful as it is strange. Bender writes such lyrical sentences, you pause over them in wonder. She has an unusual take on life; and makes even the ordinary extraordinary.
It’s a compulsive page turner. This book is already a best seller in America, and has been embraced by book clubs. I loved it. It’s one of those books you don’t want to finish — and even when you have — it stays in your mind. Bender has written three previous novels. I intend to savour them all.
