Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel was first published in Mexico in 1989 and has gone on to international bestsellerdom and critical acclaim. Like Water for Chocolate falls under the genre of magical realism involving scenes in which the supernatural can occur in everyday life. It's a novel about passionate topics: food, cooking, romance and above all the love that Tita de la Garza and Pedro Muzquiz feel for each other. When that love is thwarted by Tita's mother, Mama Elena, it will have devastating consequences for all involved.
The novel begins n Mexico at the start of the 20th century. Tita is the youngest daughter of Mama Elena de la Garza, a mean woman who owns a ranch in northern Mexico. At sixteen Tita and a neighborhood boy Pedro Muzquiz fall in love and want to marry. Mama Elena says no because there is a tradition in the de la Garza family where the youngest daughter can never marry so that she can take care of her mother in her later years. It's a cruel and nonsensical tradition but Mama Elena will not listen to reason.
Tita and Pedro are heartbroken but Tita cannot bring herself to go against her mother who she fears and also Tita doesn't have the stength to break family tradition. As for Pedro he agrees to marry Mama Elena's eldest daughter Rosaura figuring that if he can't marry Tita he can stay close to her by marrying her sister. This works about as well as you can imagine.
Like Water For Chocolate consists of twelve chapters from January through December but the story itself takes place over years. Each chapter leads with a new recipe from Tita's kitchen. Cooking is the one outlet Tita has to express what's in her heart. She learned how to cook when she was very young spending time in the kitchen with Nacha, the family cook. These two women have a special bond and Nacha in terms of love, support and encouragement is the only real mother Tita has ever known.
Tita's cooking has magical powers. For example forced by her mother to cook the dinner for Pedro and her sister's wedding some of Tita's tears fall into the wedding cake. Later at the wedding feast all of the guests after taking a bite of the cake are struck with such a feeling of longing and sadness that they start vomiting, including Rosaura who has her wedding day to Pedro ruined. In a later chapter Tita's other sister Gertrudis, after eating a dinner prepared by Tita is so overcome by passion that she runs away with a young soldier who is part of a rebel army fighting for Mexican independence. A certain suspension of reality is necessary to enjoy the book but the author does a good job in mixing the mythical with real life. Like Water For Chocolate is a book filled with profound and beautiful imagery. I particularly liked "Each of us is born with a book of matches inside us but we cannot strike them all by ourselves".
One criticism I might make is that more time needed to be spent establishing why Tita and Pedro's relationship is so special. Pedro though he plays a central role in the story isn't a major character. This is above all Tita's story and she spends much more time with Nacha, her mother and John a local doctor who falls in love with Tita than she does with Pedro. When Pedro does appear throughout the course of the book longing glances between the two are supposed to suffice in convincing us that the chemistry is still there. But I didn't feel the chemistry possibly because Pedro is not fleshed out enough as a character but maybe it's different in the movie version of the book which I have not seen.
As we get to the end of the book we discover that the story of Tita and Pedro is being told to us decades later by Tita's grandniece. Times are different now. The family tradition of the youngest daughter never marrying is in the past. These days one is encouraged to follow one's heart but as Tita's grandniece tells us food, cooking and Tita's recipes are traditions worth keeping.
I tried reading this one once, but just couldn't get into it... and I didn't persist. Maybe I should have. :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, I enjoyed it but I do think the book was missing something, the chemistry between Tita and Pedro which I didn't feel and in a love story, that matters.
ReplyDeleteI remember liking the film. I have heard that the book was different. I tend to like magical realism. With that, for whatever reasons sometimes such books do not have completely fleshed out characters. Maybe the authors allow the magical part of the plot to get distracting.
ReplyDeleteHi Brian, I agree there can be so much time spent on the magical realism aspects of the novel that an author can forget that above all this is a love story and therefore the reader has to feel the chemistry that Tia and Pedro have for each other, not just be told its there.
DeleteI bet the chemistry is easier to establish visually...longing glances and all that. I am not a fan of magical realism but I might pick this book up one of these days!
ReplyDeleteHi Ruthiella, Alot of emotion and fine writing goes into how the recipes are prepared. I'm thinking that's where the real passion is in the novel, the food. But I have heard good things about the film and I agree visually maybe its easier to display chemistry.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy, did it make you hungry to read any of it?
DeleteIt did. For example the January recipe Christmas Rolls made with sardines, sausage, onion, oregano, rolls. The sardines I am not sure about but the rest sounded good but the recipes are very difficult to make, the quail in rose petals for example.
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