Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame

“At the grand age of seventy-seven she should be happy with her lot, and yet she couldn’t help but wonder what she had really achieved in all that time. Without Bernard, what did she have?”

Jenny Quinn’s decision to audition for a baking competition show at the age of 77 is motivated by her feeling that she hasn’t achieved anything in life. Jenny’s sense of failure is partially motivated by her sense that she is a failure for not having a family, highlighting how societal expectations of women have deeply affected her life. Despite her feeling that all she has is Bernard, Jenny initially keeps her ambitions for the show a secret from him.

“Jenny had continued Margot’s tradition every year since she had gone, in light of its significance to Bernard, and so that she would always be a part of their Christmas.”

The Connection Between Food, Memory, and Love is an important theme throughout the novel. Here, Jenny bakes a chocolate roll in honor of Bernard’s late sister Margot, who developed the recipe and made it every year until her death. The passage suggests that the cake helps the family to feel as if Margot is with them.

“Jenny nodded as if she understood. […] She searched for some wise words, for some experience to draw on, but instead felt herself shrinking smaller and smaller, punctured by a pin of inadequacy.”

Throughout the novel, Jenny struggles with feelings of inadequacy related to the fact that she never had children. In this passage, she struggles to connect with her niece Rose as she complains about her problems balancing motherhood and her career. The metaphor of being “punctured by a pin” alludes to the way her lack of experience deflates her and makes her feel small.