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.
No comments:
Post a Comment