Jin Zixuan
Conflicts &
Magical Realism
if you can taste the emotion of the
cook in any bite you have? What if you can't help yourself
changing into a piece of furniture? You will freak out, and,
of course, others won't simply believe you. Things like this
happened in Aimee Bender's novel The Particular Sadness of
Lemon Cake. The mood taster Rose grew into an outsider of
her past social circles, and the boy of chair Joseph deter-
mined to move out of his family house and lived in an old
dark apartment alone. Aside from behavioral results, they
mentally have gone through a tough process of overcoming
self-disability as well.
WHAT WOULD IT FEEL LIKE