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Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (Black Swan)
This book is the reason I first fell in love with the magic realism genre. I've read plenty of other books in this genre since then, but I have yet to find one that has the same effect on me as this.
Chained to Mexican tradition at the time, Tita, the youngest of three daughters – gifted with an exquisitely unique cooking skill – is confined to a dreary future of serving and attending to her mother's needs till her death – forbidden the right to marry according to the staunch rules amongst traditional Mexican families.
However, tradition finds itself flailing in mid-air upon the arrival of the forbidden in the form of Pedro who falls desperately in love with the beautiful young Tita.
Naturally he tries to win her hand in marriage and of course, his request is denied by Mama Elena, Tita's staunch, unyielding and spiteful mother.
To compensate, Mama Elena offers her eldest daughter Rosuara to him - and out of sheer desperation Pedro agrees to marry her - only doing so to remain close to Tita.
For the next 22 years, Tita and Pedro are forced to move in the same circle, swathed in their unconsummated passion for each other – kept apart by ensuing events which affects everyone in the family…
What makes this book so spectacularly different is the element of magical realism that is vividly present throughout the book.
The book is written in monthly instalments of magical and sumptuous recipes – each of which plays a pivotal part in the events that follow within the story.
Each dish that Tita prepares speaks of the emotions that she cannot always express when around her family and is used as a means to express her love to Pedro and often has comic and heartbreaking effects on everyone else who consumes her dishes..
Part mythical and partly historical, Like water for chocolate is an enchantingly magical, sumptuous feast of a novel touched with a quality of earthiness and idiosyncratic grandeur that makes for a delicious read…
It's undoubtedly my favourite novel of all time and an absolute must read!
Click here to get your copy now.
Read Like water for chocolate before? What did you think of it?
This book is the reason I first fell in love with the magic realism genre. I've read plenty of other books in this genre since then, but I have yet to find one that has the same effect on me as this.
Chained to Mexican tradition at the time, Tita, the youngest of three daughters – gifted with an exquisitely unique cooking skill – is confined to a dreary future of serving and attending to her mother's needs till her death – forbidden the right to marry according to the staunch rules amongst traditional Mexican families.
However, tradition finds itself flailing in mid-air upon the arrival of the forbidden in the form of Pedro who falls desperately in love with the beautiful young Tita.
Naturally he tries to win her hand in marriage and of course, his request is denied by Mama Elena, Tita's staunch, unyielding and spiteful mother.
To compensate, Mama Elena offers her eldest daughter Rosuara to him - and out of sheer desperation Pedro agrees to marry her - only doing so to remain close to Tita.
For the next 22 years, Tita and Pedro are forced to move in the same circle, swathed in their unconsummated passion for each other – kept apart by ensuing events which affects everyone in the family…
What makes this book so spectacularly different is the element of magical realism that is vividly present throughout the book.
The book is written in monthly instalments of magical and sumptuous recipes – each of which plays a pivotal part in the events that follow within the story.
Each dish that Tita prepares speaks of the emotions that she cannot always express when around her family and is used as a means to express her love to Pedro and often has comic and heartbreaking effects on everyone else who consumes her dishes..
Part mythical and partly historical, Like water for chocolate is an enchantingly magical, sumptuous feast of a novel touched with a quality of earthiness and idiosyncratic grandeur that makes for a delicious read…
It's undoubtedly my favourite novel of all time and an absolute must read!
Click here to get your copy now.
Read Like water for chocolate before? What did you think of it?
