What's Elizabeth Reading? ...Laura Esquivel

I found this book because I wanted to read something written by an author whose last name started with the letter "e." I thought it would be nice to have at least one book per letter on my bookshelf, and "e" was the first letter to come up short. So I walked into the library and stood in front of the e's in the fiction section. This is the book that stood out to me -- I don't read much Hispanic fiction (this was in English, a translation, and I tend to think Laura Esquivel wasn't so careful with her wording that I got the short end of the stick because of it), and the title was familiar: Like Water for Chocolate.

This is a strange and seemingly hypocritical post to put up after my post about when and why I stop reading particular books, mainly because there is a ton of sex in this book. I didn't think it was that bad until last night, when I read the ending to my boyfriend and realized that while the sex itself wasn't described minutely, various aspects of sex were mentioned (climax, heat, etc.). This is what I get for reading a modern romance novel.

Like Water for Chocolate is part cookbook, part romance, and part coming of age story. We watch Tita as she grows up cooking and serving her overbearing, constantly dissatisfied mother, who is determined that Tita will never marry because as the youngest daughter, it is her lot to serve and take care of her mother until her mother dies. So when Pedro comes to ask for Tita's hand in marriage, he is instead prodded into marrying Tita's sister.

Esquivel's story reminded me of Chocolat, by Joanne Harris, in that the food Tita makes is mildly magical. If she is feeling sad while she makes it, those who eat it will likewise feel sad. The same thing goes with whatever emotion she is feeling at the time.

What doesn't work for me in this book is how it skips forward in time without notice and sometimes skips key events, instead glossing over them with a sentence or two to tell the reader what happened. I assume that Esquivel had a reason for this decision, but I cannot tell what it is besides possible laziness or a desire to keep the story short.

The writing was good enough that I did not notice it much. I was confused, however, about how there was one recipe per month but the narrative didn't keep to that calendar. At that point, what is the purpose of having a calendar layout? Why title a chapter "January" if it does not all take place in January, and then why skip a couple years between that and February? Formatting. Esquivel needs to explain herself a bit.

Right of the reader: to not have to think or question, to not be drawn out by any flaw or irregularity in the text. If they want to think, they can, but they should be able to understand at least the events of the story without pondering or figuring them out. Esquivel's time habits gave me a little bit of a jerky journey.

When and Why I Put Down a Book

I’ve taken to listening to books on CD while I drive to work lately. The drive home takes 25 or so minutes. On the way to work, though, let’s just say I have to leave 45 minutes early just in case.
It was after I decided to stop listening to one particular book that I thought it might be a good to talk about when and why I make that decision.


Why: It has descriptively sensual material

This is why I stopped reading The Color Purple midway through. I picked it up because it’s a well-known book and a classic. I thought it would be a good idea to read it so I could expand my literary foundation. But when the book began to talk, descriptively, about sex, I decided I needed to put it down. I’m one of those people who closes my eyes during movies because I don’t want to see what is happening on the screen when Character A shoves a pair of tongs through Character B’s eyes. It’s an image I don’t want in my mind, and with movies, I can close my eyes and still know exactly what is going on, so I don’t lose any of the plot. With books, you can’t close your eyes, and when it comes to sex scenes, I as a reader am being forced to conjure up images on my own that I’d rather not be creating or even thinking about. I'm okay if I'm told the characters had sex; just don't describe it. I’m not against sex. Like, at all. I think this particular reason for putting a book down has to do with my relationship with God, and how I believe that He wants my thinking to be virtuous. Getting my brain to conjure up its own porn is not so cool when the people involved aren’t me and my spouse. It does things to the way your mind works and makes sex more about lust than physical intimacy and love.

When: If it is a recurring scene and/or I can’t skip the page/chapter without losing what is happening in the story

I wanted to read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. It sounds like a brilliant concept, and besides that, people say it’s great. But when an entire introductory chapter was a single sex scene (an erotically horrific one, if that interests you), I could tell that things weren’t going to go up from there. So I made the choice to stop reading it. I think I allowed The Color Purple one sex scene but then it kept dwelling on it and returning for more and I was just done with it all.

Why: The ideas are an assault on my religious beliefs

I’m okay if an author has different ideas than me. Really. By the time I was finishing reading Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, I had a weird sensation that the narrator had been trying to convert me to her religion. On a whim, I looked it up and it turns out Bradley did actually start a religion along the lines of the one found in the book (practiced by the book's Morgan le Fay, by the way). It’s called the Aquarian Order of the Restoration, if you feel like looking it up. This conversion attempt did not make me need or want to put the book down.

A book I did end up putting down was Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass. I adore the first two books in the His Dark Materials trilogy. They are some of my favorite YA novels. But when I got to the third book in this trilogy, the tone of the books turned and I found myself being served some religious theory that said God was a liar. It was as if the fiction was being used to mask a rant about how blind religious people are. Things crossed a line for me when I started wondering if he was right. Go ahead and say I am deliberately blinding myself to reason, but I know there is a God and He is a good person, and I don’t have to sit and quietly accept an attack on that belief. In a lecture or classroom, fine, because I can defend myself. A book isn’t that sort of platform.

When: If I start giving undue credence to the author’s argument

Again, this is an Elizabeth-is-willfully-being-blind moment. I don’t care.

Why: The writing is terrible

I once bought a book at a library book sale that had what I thought was a promising concept. It was a retelling of Jane Eyre from Adele's point of view that claimed Bertha wasn't insane after all and Adele was friends with her and was the reason the house burned down. However intriguing the concept, though, this writing was terribly hard to get through and the story just wasn't worth that much work.

When: If the writing gets in the way of the story

The story is what's important. If I have to trudge through a swamp to get to it, that story better be worth it. I'll put a book down if the writing is so bad it slaughters the story.

Why: The book can't hold my attention

I tried multiple times to listen to Around the World in 80 Days. It isn't that Jules Verne disagrees with me, because I made it through Journey to the Center of the Earth just fine, but for some reason I never could get past the beginning of 80 Days, and I was listening, which is generally easier. I may have to try again sometime soon.

When: If it's due back at the library

If it is due back, or if another book grabs my attention instead, I'll let the book go. Whether or not I renew it and give it more time has to do with how good of a recommendation the book has. After all, it could just have a slow beginning.

Think of it this way: I want a PG-13 at most (I'll give a bit on language and violence, so long as there's a reason for it being there) book that is well directed and has a good script. That's my base standard.