Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel
translated by Carol Christensen, Thomas Christensen
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Anchor (New York): 1 February 1994. Trade paperback. ISBN-10: 0-385-42017-X Suggested retail price: $11.95 (US) Tags: 1900s; cooking; made into movie; magic realism; Mainstream; Mexico Tactical strength: [6/10] |
Compare prices on Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel at Book Cost
Esquivel uses cooking as an extended metaphor throughout her story. The recipes and their preparation fit in with the story and have some obvious (and many more understated) meanings. Through cooking, we come to learn what it was like to be a Mexican woman at the beginning of the 1900s. The story often takes on aspects of fable or myth that sometimes seem out of place with the very matter of fact presentation of the story line. For example, the main character, Tita, crochets a bedspread in her spare time that at the end of the book is large enough to cover 3 hectares.
There are also elements of spiritualism and magic that make this book difficult to classify as straight fiction or as a fantasy. For the most part, the text reads as like a typical historical novel, but with increasing frequency toward the end of the novel, Esquivel includes obvious fabulous elements.
One could read or study Like Water for Chocolate at whatever depth desired. One could analyze the symbolic meaning of the various foods, the connection between the increasing number of fabulous events to Tita's decreasing faculties of love, desire, and mental abilities. Esquivel leaves the door wide open for a multitude of interpretations. And yet, the plot is a relatively simple story of a woman who is an expert in preparing food and very inexpert in handling her own life and affairs.
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