Traits of a Young Rose Edelstein

Look at the blue blue sky, and if it smiles back, know that it is me! Or it may be rain and thunder, but who's keeping count? Let's just say I'm experiencing what you might call 'mood turbulence' :)

For Rose Edelstein, aged nine, the day she eats her mother's lemon cake, she is blessed - cursed - with with a gift: to 'taste' emotion in food. She tastes her mother's unhappiness, but is helpless to do anything about it.

In this blogpost, I'll be featuring three (3) traits of a young Rose Edelstein pictured in The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, a writer I deem as an expert in the genre of magical realism.

1. Respectful of her elders (6 month before Rose's 9th birthday)  
// pg 5 // They were right in the way, in the middle of the hall, as I was leaping from room to room with a plastic leopard. Excuse me, I said.
// pg 17 // May I be excused? I asked. Of course, Mom said.

2. Tend to be fair (age 9)
// pg 6 // Plus, I was still busily going over the bad point scoring from lunch, called by Eddie Oakley with the freckles, who never called fairly.

3. Concerned with the well-being of her family (age 9)
// pg  13 // Did you and Dad have a fight? // Are you okay? I said.