Like Water for Chocolate

Rating:
Summary: Love, family, food, and all that good stuff!
Review: Do you love the smell and warmth of a home cooked meal...just like mama use to make? Well, this book does not prepare home cooked meals for you, but provides a little flavor to the reading. This is a cultural love story of a typical Mexican girl. Tita is her name and she is the youngest of three daughters. She is in love, but her mother will not let her marry because she is the youngest. In her culture the youngest has to stay home and tend to the needs of her mother. So Mama Elena, Tita's mother, decided to let the love of Tita's life marry the eldest daughter. I would tell you the rest, but you need to read the book for yourself. Each chapter starts out with a different recipe. You know how food makes you act a certaion way when it is "sooooo" good. Well, in this story people reacted to Tita's cooking, but the behavior was far from usual. I like this technique because it adds more gusto to the story. Just think about it, a love story filled with home cooked meals. What more could you ask for in a book?

Rating:
Summary: A love story filled with heart found in the soul of cooking.
Review: In my opinion, I found this novel to be very heartwarming and well written. With the extra help of including recipes, it help bring the novel to life and made it much easier for the reader to be able to make a connection between the art of true love and homemade soul cooking.

Rating:
Summary: A Feast For The Eyes And Your Mouth
Review: When I heard about the novel, I was notified that it was an motion picture from Miramax. The film was recommened by an aquaintance. I heard alot of good stuff about the film which he told me details of the film, which was a must-see. Then, when I was reading the article of the New York Times best seller book list. I find out on the titie Like Water For Chocolate was on the list, which even fancinates me more. So when I went to the libary to read this novel. I was head- ing to a trip of rich emotions and love, even the delicious recipes like my favorite, quail in rose petal sauce. I like stories taking back the days of the 19th century. The most impressive character was Tita who is the heroine in the novel (as well as the film cleverly written by Esquevel herslf) I recommened this novel which I seen the enchanting movie for my friends and family years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect recipe and prescription for literary satisfaction
Review: Mama Elena forbids Tita de la Garza to marry her true love Pedro. This "recipe", leads assuredly to adultery and incest. Tita spends her life dispensing superb meals, when not her own breasts, to feed others. The contrast is Tita's half (?) sister who leaves the De La Garza ranch, naked in a horse and face to face with the horse's rider. An excellent translation, that almost automatically and easily folds onto a marvelous movie of the same title.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect recipe and prescription for literary satisfaction
Review: [e-mail], 06/02/97, rating=10: Perfect recipe and prescription for literary satisfaction Mama Elena forbids Tita de la Garza to marry her true love Pedro. This "recipe", leads assuredly to adultery and incest. Tita spends her life dispensing superb meals, when not her own breasts, to feed others. The contrast is Tita's half (?) sister who leaves the De La Garza ranch, naked in a horse and face to face with the horse's rider. An excellent translation, that almost automatically and easily fol

Rating:
Summary: Perfect recipe and prescription for literary satisfaction
Review: Mama Elena forbids Tita de la Garza to marry her true love Pedro. This "recipe", leads assuredly to adultery and incest. Tita spends her life dispensing superb meals, when not her own breasts, to feed others. The contrast is Tita's half (?) sister who leaves the De La Garza ranch, naked in a horse and face to face with the horse's rider. An excellent translation, that almost automatically and easily folds onto a marvelous movie of the same title

Rating:
Summary: Perfect recipe and prescription for literary satisfaction
Review: Mama Elena forbids Tita de la Garza to marry her true love Pedro. This, "recipe", leads assuredly to adultery and incest. Tita spends her life dispensing superb meals, when not her own breasts, to feed others. The contrast is Tita's half (?) sister who leaves the De La Garza ranch, naked in a horse and face to face with the horse's rider. An excellent translation, that almost automatically and easily folds onto a marvelous movie of the same title

Rating:
Summary: "Like Water for Chocolate"
Review: Raunchy, sensual, romantic, delicious and mystical are all words that can be used to describe "Like Water for Chocolate". Laura Esquivel writes "Like Water for Chocolate" and it is set in the late 1800's. This novel is based around recipes and forbidden love, yet when the ingredients are united, devious and unusual flavours surface. This classic love story takes place on the De La Garza ranch, which is run by Mama Elena, a bitter, egotistical and spiteful old woman. The ranch sits on the border of Mexico.

The book tells us about a romance that occurs between Tita De La Garza, the youngest daughter of Mama Elena and a man named Pedro. However Tita being the youngest girl has the fate, which is dictated by family tradition, of looking after her mother until she dies. This means that she is to remain single. Tita has grown up in the kitchen along side of Nacha, the cook, and has learnt all the family recipes and home remedies. Tita, being not only born in the kitchen, but being where spent most of her childhood, becomes a master and head chief of the ranch.

When Pedro, Tita's admirer, asks her mother for her hand in marriage, her mother refuses and tells Pedro of the loyalty that Tita has to her mother. However, Mama Elena offers Tita's older sister Rosaura. Pedro accepts because he thinks that it is the only way he will be close to Tita. The only way he is able to stay close to his one true love. When Pedro marries Rosaura, Tita begins a life filled with passion, deception, irritation and pure love.

Throughout the novel are recipes, which provide metaphorical interpretation on the characters and their culture. There is also the food that Tita creates as the head cook on the family ranch, the food is so vibrant and sensual it affects on anyone who eats it.

The characters in the novel were realistic and believable. However one character stood out above all the rest. She stood out because of the way she was described and the way she was portrayed. Overall, the author effectively described each and every one of the characters in the novel.

When I first started reading "Like Water for Chocolate" I didn't completely understand it, however the more I read it; the more I fell in love with the novel. The forbidden love and the recipes were what inspired me to read on. This is a novel that is worth while reading and is one the best novels I have read for many years. The novel combines longing, love, frustration, rebellion and food all the way throughout the novel. All these put together; along with the supernatural input, makes for funny, sad and direct story told by Tita's grand niece. I give this novel a 4 out of 5 because I disliked the ending and I thought that more could have come out of it. However, overall a must read novel of the year.

Rating:
Summary: The power of emotions
Review: "Like Water for Chocolate" combines the techniques of magical realism with sensual romance and magnificent cooking to create a truly unique novel. We are taken through the life of Tita De La Garza, the passionate woman stuck between a forbidden love and the wrath of her traditional mother. We follow her through her struggle to find love and individuality while balancing her extraordinary gift to enchant the kitchen. Through the monthly installments in the novel you will get a small taste of what life was like in the twentieth century in Mexico yet also see the world through the intense emotion that guides you through the pages. The vivid symbols of heat and fire permeate the novel and arouse strong emotions of lust and love. If the intensity of the novel does not keep the pages turning then the recipes that are uniquely woven into the story surely will. I recommend this novel to anybody who is interested in a quick read that keeps you coming back every time you put the book down.

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.