Rating: 
Summary: Recipes makes this novel...
Review: After reading this novel I have been consumed with the applications of the recipes. They are expressions of emotion that allow Tita to "create". The passionate and magical foods she makes is one of the freedoms she is allowed by her mother. They are also applied as a historical tool. The memories and stories are passed from generation to generation through the recipes. I realize the story offers much more than recipes but I want to know you will feel the power, magic and art of cooking through this novel
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite fantasy that absorbed my mind, body & soul.
Review: This story captured my imagination from the first chapter with its detail of costume, country and delectable food. Descriptions of recipes,eating and cooking whetted my appetite for more than just dessert. I could feel the heat from the intenseness of the Mexican sun as well as experiencing the hatred for her mother who would never allow her a life of her own. This book comes to mind @ the top of my list when ever anyone asks me to recommend a book
Rating:
Summary: Food, life, and Love
Review: This novel has an interesting flavor and perspective, being translated from the Mexican
bestseller. The blending of recipes at the beginning of each chapter, and the plot
developments relating to those recipes reflect the tight integration of cuisine into the
showcased family's life. Also captivating is Esquivel's seamless blending of realistic insight into
her protagonist's thoughts with segues into moments of outright fantasy at the high point of
the novel. The novel is beautifully written with a wonderful atmosphere. The story of
unrequited love tugs a bit at your heartstrings, but didn't pull me over the top, maybe because
I personally couldn't relate as much to the decisions made by the characters. The story works
on many other levels besides the romance aspect, however, and should offer a good
soft-hearted read.
Rating:
Summary: Food, life, and Love
Review: This novel has an interesting flavor and perspective, being translated
from the Mexican bestseller. The blending of recipes at the beginning
of each chapter, and the plot developments relating to those
recipes reflect the tight integration of cuisine into the
showcased family's life. Also captivating is Esquivel's
seamless blending of realistic insight into her protagonist's thoughts with segues into moments of outright fantasy at the
high point of the novel. The novel is beautifully written
with a wonderful atmosphere. The story of unrequited love tugs
a bit at your heartstrings, but didn't pull me over the top,
maybe because I personally couldn't relate as much to the
decisions made by the characters. The story works on many other levels besides the romance aspect, however, and should
offer a good soft-hearted read.
Rating:
Summary: a feast of the 5 senses, come to life
Review: besides the excellent recipes wholly printed in the book version, here is my review of the movie, which is not as detailed nor able to be prolonged but is true to the book (unlike other movie versions of books in which some stuff is changed):after you watch this movie, you will either want to eat, cook (preferably one of the mentioned recipes), make love or all three! i saw the version dubbed in spanish, and also read 3 selected chapters from the book, for spanish class. it's a work of art and genius, and it must be watched all the way through without stopping. the characters are excellently portrayed, and it combines love, feminism, drama, sensuality, lust, hope, passion, and humour, topped with cultural tradition and folklore. i don't know which one is better, the book or the movie. all of the 5 senses are provoked on a deep and perhaps even primal level, especially taste and smell, feverishly yearning for a sum greater than their overall parts (gestalt) - which brings up the sixth sense, intuition.
Rating:
Summary: Yummy
Review: I didn't think I'd like this book when I had to read it for a class. It's just not my style. I usually go for books about depressed male characters (such as myself) like The Moviegoer and The Catcher in the Rye. This isn't one of those novels. Nevertheless, it was good. I should probably start looking for these romance/recipe novels more often. The novel's basically a mythological story about the passionate Tita who, unable to marry the one she loves, expresses her passion through her food. There are some hilarious moments and some really romantic ones. And Tita's definitely a character worth falling in love with. She's one that will drive you crazy (if I were female, I would never go for Pedro, but that's just me), but that really just makes the novel better. This is definitely a great novel for a light afternoon read. And I'm going to try some of the recipes, too. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Like Water for Chocolate Deserves 3.5 Stars!!!
Review: I think this book read more like a fairy tale, and I've yet to experiment with any of the recipes.
Tita loves Pedro,but because she's the youngest daughter, tradition has other plans for her. Pedro marries her
older sister instead just to be closer to Tita, but things don't work out as they'd like.
This book reminded me very much of Cinderella(the fairy tale). This was a good story, but it could have been much
better. For that reason, this reviewer gives Like Water for Chocolate 3.5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Great novel!
Review: Having seen the movie first, I decided to read the book: "Like Water For Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel. This fictional story based in Mexico tells of a young woman whom is destined by tradition to care for her mother in old age and be refused marriage. As luck would have it, she is in love with a man, who loves her as well. To be close to her, he agrees to marry her sister. The main character of the story puts her passion and sorrow into her cooking. Whenever she created a meal, the consumers of her dishes would display the emotions she had during the cooking process, whether it be sexual desire or extreme sorrow. This book is also broken up into months, offering a recipe each month, such as Quail in Rose Petal Sauce, Ox-Tail Soup, Wedding Cake and even how to make your own matches! If you enjoy love stories and Mexican food, this book may be an interesting read for you!
Rating:
Summary: Innovative and magical novel - a fantastic read!
Review: Few times does an author create something completely unique; Laura Esquivel has accomplished just that. Her themes of passion, familial insubordination, dictatorial governance, and romance are not new to literature. But communicating those themes through family life on the ranch of northern Mexico using magical realism and monthly recipes as metaphors is truly pioneering.
Tita is a suppressed daughter of Mama Elena, head of a Mexican ranch at the time of the Mexican Revolution. Tita was denied the consent of her mother to marry her true love, Pedro, who decided to wed Tita's older sister to be close to Tita. It is a recipe for disaster. What ensues is how Tita progresses and finds happiness under her mother's masterdom.
Food becomes the central metaphor in Like Water for Chocolate, as a life sustainer and a passion stimulant. Tita expresses herself through the food she prepares, obtaining a degree of creativity and professionalism that is obtained only through generations of tradition; she becomes the family nurturer, feeding babies, the sickly and the healthy. Food is the way that this matriarchal Mexican ranch family sustains their culture and tradition.
The political allegory is also significant, mapping what the key personalities are under a stifling dictatorship. Mama Elena maintains her power with the force of her own personality: personalismo. When that doesn't work, she cites tradition and "respectability." The third line of power is fear and castigation. Past political dictators have used all of these leadership tactics to maintain their regency. All of the characters have interesting allegorical places: Rosaura the ideological conformist, is a weak personality who carries on the traditions set by her mother without realizing why she is doing them. Gertrudis plays the rebel and Pedro the selfish conformist. Pedro abides by his mother-in-law's rules but tries to maximize his own happiness without contributing to the happiness of others. Marrying the sister of the woman he loves is a solution of someone who cannot think outside the box. He only marries Rosaura because Mama Elena suggests it-the marriage is within the rules. If he were a true free-thinker, he would run away and liberate Tita at the beginning.
By setting the novel against the Mexican Revolution, Esquivel shows how a family and a country can change its dogmatic and unproductive traditions. Just as the country overthrows its leadership, the De La Garza family overthrows Mama Elena and changes how it functions. The daughters of the De La Garza revolution decide just how they want to live after Mama Elena is gone.
The magical realism in Like Water for Chocolate makes the novel fun to read. From seeing ghosts to Gertrudis bursting the shower into flames, the novel becomes more of a tall-tale than a historical novel. These magical phenomena accentuate the humanity of the characters-using the magical elements to put the characters in positions where their true emotions can be seen. Overall, magical realism is an excellent technique in a well-written book.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE by Laura Esquivel (Translated by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen
February 5, 2005
A book that has become a classic, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE by Laura Esquivel is the star-crossed romance between Tita and Pedro. They are torn apart due to a "tradition" held in Tita's family that the youngest daughter is destined to live out her life taking care of her mother. Tita and Pedro have already declared their love for each other, but Mama Elena has other plans. Instead, Pedro marries an older sister, Rosaura, who he does not love at all, but he feels this is the closest he will ever get to his beloved Tita.
Each chapter begins with a Mexican recipe, and the chapters themselves are written as if for a cookbook, except in-between the instructions on how to make "mole", or how to cook Quail in Rose Petal sauce, Tita's story is told, narrated by an unnamed grandniece. It is the sad, yet sometimes humorous story of Tita's life, and how she is frustrated living as the youngest daughter in the house of De La Garza. Tita's father has been long deceased, and Mama Elena is the head of the household. She rules with a heavy hand and all live in fear of her. Tita, however, is the rebellious child, and is often beaten and punished for the simplest of things. Her biggest punishment is when Mama Elena declares that Tita will not be allowed to marry her love, Pedro, and instead Tita watches her sister take her place.
Her emotions are somehow transmitted to her cooking. By this time of her life, Tita is relegated to head cook, and she is good at it. But the pain and unhappiness she feels is now tasted in her cooking. At her sister's wedding, the guests become sick because of how Tita feels as she cooks the banquet feast. This is but one example where Tita's cooking seems to become more than just a meal, sending her own emotions into the food that she is cooking. I loved this element of magical realism, and I'm finding that the more I read books by Hispanic authors, the more sure I will be that I will encounter it.
As many books written by Latin American authors, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE spans many years, and although it is quite a short book, it does tell the story of two lives that are forever linked through love. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I hear it is just as good as the book. LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE is highly recommended by the Ratmammy.
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