Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel
I chose this book off of a list of books I had to read for English. I thought I'd try a little magic realism. Life lesson: any time you get to read about magic in school, it's a treat.
That being said, it is best to divide this book into two distinct aspects: the romance aspect and the magic aspect.
For a bit of background, Like Water for Chocolate is the story of Tita, the youngest daughter in the family. She lives in Mexico with her family, and keeping with the family's traditions, the youngest daughter must take care of her mother until the day she dies. This means no marriage, and for Tita, it means she must watch her sister marry the love of her life, Pedro. While serving her mother for eternity, Tita learns to express herself through her cooking, which some might even say is magical (cause it totally is, bro).
First part, a.k.a. the romance. One plot line that I absolutely cannot stand in a book is the cheating plot line. Cheating seems gross to me, and I can't stand how casual people are about throwing love triangles into stories to make them saucier, or whatever. And because of the love triangle plot of the story, I really didn't connect with any of the characters, which didn't make for a happy read. The one character I did like was Mama Elena, Tita's mama. She was a spectacular villain.
Now onto the magic, which was much more enjoyable. I don't know that the magic in the story was necessarily realistic. To me, the whole story read more like a legend or a tall tale, like the stories of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill. The magic bits were very exaggerated and legendary, and that was cool. Magic food is always a great addition to a story.
And the last thing I wanted to write about was the format of the book. It's set up like a recipe book, divided into twelve months with each month representing a new recipe. I thought it was a nice idea, but after a few months I was sick of the recipes, and I just skimmed past them.
It was an okay read, not my favorite. If romance is your thing, you'll hopefully enjoy it more than I did.
That being said, it is best to divide this book into two distinct aspects: the romance aspect and the magic aspect.
For a bit of background, Like Water for Chocolate is the story of Tita, the youngest daughter in the family. She lives in Mexico with her family, and keeping with the family's traditions, the youngest daughter must take care of her mother until the day she dies. This means no marriage, and for Tita, it means she must watch her sister marry the love of her life, Pedro. While serving her mother for eternity, Tita learns to express herself through her cooking, which some might even say is magical (cause it totally is, bro).
First part, a.k.a. the romance. One plot line that I absolutely cannot stand in a book is the cheating plot line. Cheating seems gross to me, and I can't stand how casual people are about throwing love triangles into stories to make them saucier, or whatever. And because of the love triangle plot of the story, I really didn't connect with any of the characters, which didn't make for a happy read. The one character I did like was Mama Elena, Tita's mama. She was a spectacular villain.
Now onto the magic, which was much more enjoyable. I don't know that the magic in the story was necessarily realistic. To me, the whole story read more like a legend or a tall tale, like the stories of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill. The magic bits were very exaggerated and legendary, and that was cool. Magic food is always a great addition to a story.
And the last thing I wanted to write about was the format of the book. It's set up like a recipe book, divided into twelve months with each month representing a new recipe. I thought it was a nice idea, but after a few months I was sick of the recipes, and I just skimmed past them.
It was an okay read, not my favorite. If romance is your thing, you'll hopefully enjoy it more than I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment