The Twelve Little Cakes

Rating:
Summary: THE WONDER OF CHILDHOOD
Review: I would call this a gentle book harking back to childhood with loving parents who are dissidents of a strange political system named Communisim in an Eastern European country named Czechoslovakia from 1974 to about 1985. You discover that Communisim is a disastrous joke and wonder how it lasted as long as it did...and does in a few countries still. The author does a masterful job of writing about her life as it was from age 5 to 10 and conveys to the reader the innocence and excitement and concern of what is important to a young child. The big sister is in her story who adds to her troubles at times and the fact that her father is fired from many many jobs due to his resistance of the political regime, yet is able to always be optimistic and find other ways to get work has an important part also. This is a feel good book and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Touching, sweet, and nostalgic
Review: The first thing we learn about Dominika Dery is that she appeared to her mother in a dream before she was born. It was in a garden and she came running through the trees to say hello. As soon as her mother, Jana, began trying to have a baby, the girl disappeared from her dreams. When finally Jana became pregnant, she and her husband Jarda were joyful. Although they did not have a lot of money for a second child, Dominika was welcomed and had a loving childhood.

Growing up in Prague in the 1970s and early 1980s, Dominika did not know her grandparents because, as members of the Party elite, they disowned her mother. She tried multiple times to meet her grandmother and grandfather, and invited them to ballet performances that she was in, but to no avail. Instead, she forged relationships with elderly members of the community.

While the family was not wealthy, Dominika enjoyed many treats in life and spending time with her parents. After seeing "Swan Lake" with her family, she was determined to become a ballerina, even though she was young and small. Throughout the reading of this memoir, you learn that Dominika was not an average little girl, and that when she set her mind to do something, she did it.

Dominika's father worked as a taxi driver because his political beliefs made it almost impossible to get another job. As a result, many of the children who were Dominika's age were not allowed to play with her. She spent hours with the older women in the neighborhood, who told her stories of their youth and baked cakes for her.

Dominika dealt with much disappointment before even completing her first decade of life. She became a dedicated and talented ballerina, but she was so small and young that it was hard to obtain roles in performances. When she did receive them, the costumes were too large or she would run into orchestra conductors who did not appreciate it when little girls sang along to the music. She began going to church and had quite a scare when she learned that, because she had taken communion at church without having been baptized, she must be baptized or she would be sent to hell.

The small town of Cernosice was full of gossips, and Dominika's parents were forever warning her not to say anything, because no one could be sure whether a neighbor was an informant or not. In one of her childhood memories captured here, she shares a time when her father outsmarted three informants by putting them to work in his backyard.

Our last glimpse into Prague's communist era is when Dominika and her parents, not accompanied by her sister, traveled to Poland for a vacation. Through hardships and disappointments, Dominika still managed to make friends, keep smiling, and put her mother and father into good spirits once again.

Dominika's good nature puts readers in good moods as well. THE TWELVE LITTLE CAKES is a touching, sweet story, and it will remind you of your childhood days, when you were as loved as you wanted to be, and anything was possible.

--- Reviewed by Hannah Gómez ([e-mail])