Jandy's Reading Room

Eat Cake

Jeanne Ray

Eat Cake

General Fiction and Poetry 12/23/2007 Rating: 4 Scrolls

Life is going along well for Ruth and Sam, then suddenly a curve ball comes their way. Sam is laid off from his 20-year hospital administration job. Her father Guy, a roving piano bar player, falls and breaks both wrists. He needs a place to stay while he recuperates. Ruth's mother, Hollis, already lives with them and hates her ex-husband. Then Guy shows up with his arms in medical haloes and pins sticking into his wrists. Camille, their 16-year-old daughter, barely talks to them. When she does, it tends to be insolent. Their son is off to college so for now there is only his tuition to consider.

When Ruth is stressed, she bakes cake from scratch. The family often complains about having to eat cake ("I'll gain weight." "You shouldn't just eat dessert.") but that doesn't stop them from enjoying it. Baking is the therapy that keeps Ruth going as her parents bicker, Camille ignores them all, and her husband seems lost after all those years of purpose. Sam doesn't appear to be job hunting. Ruth doesn't work at a paying job outside the home. Camille is a private school. Guy needs home care. An occupational therapist friend of Sam's from the hospital stops by to start working with Guy. Like everyone else Ruth knows, even the therapist is served cake. Ruth's stress levels are increasing - so are the number and frequency of the cakes.

Eat Cake is a good fluff book. Usually when I describe a book as "fun" it's a light book meant more for entertainment and to make the reader feel good - a bit of fluff. Eat Cake is just that sort of book except that it has enough substance to catch the reader in and keep him/her interested in the characters' problems as well. Ruth is suddenly part of the sandwich generation, responsible for her parents, including the independent (now totally dependent) father she barely knows. Jeanne Ray added a scene about needing to cut his toe nails that came to life.

In the end everything comes out all right and hopeful with some amusing twists. Ray reminds us by the end that no matter what we have seen in the past or think we can expect, people surprise us. Eat Cake is a fun little book that you will enjoy.

  You might also like:

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs

Book Rating System

  • Explicit sexual content - very explicit sex or erotica
  • Graphic violence - explicit scenes of gore or violent acts
  • Non-graphic violence
  • Strong language
  • Strong sexual content - somewhat explicit sex
  • Suggestive dialogue or situations

There is only me at this site, so I'm counting on you to be my copy editors. If a link is broken, I've made a typo, or there is some other error you notice, please send me an e-mail. Make sure you mention the book title because these go to a general mail box and I don't always know which book you might mean. Thanks!

© 1998 - 2013 All reviews are personal opinions and not necessarily those of the webmaster of Jandy's Reading Room