first things first: let's get rid of that ugly movie cover, and switch to the one i actually read....

okay, better.

this was my final selection for the readventurer challenge. i read them alphabetically, based on the suggester's first name, for arbitrary fairness.

it is strange that i have never read this book, as it is magical realism, doomed love story, and about food, all of which are interests of mine.

here is a quick story that has nothing to do with the book, and i am going to put it in a spoiler for everyone who thinks i am too personal in my book reports, but:

so this is one of those books i always thought you either read in high school, or you just never read. my AP english class senior year, i had a teacher i loved. i had him for three classes that year, and he was the "cool" teacher with the chuck taylors and the ponytail, the irreverent one who cursed and treated high school kids like sentient beings, went by a nickname, and about whom there were rumors of indiscretions (of the drugs-and-alcohol sort, not the other kind). but he was also a canon-adherer. basically - white european males. all the time. (although we did read little foxes, so there was one lady.) the other AP class was a much more "hey, let's read a range of perspectives" syllabus. and a bunch of people dropped out of his class to go to t'other, and by the end we were down to like nine students, which was great for me, but probably reflected poorly on him. but he was completely unapologetic about it, "if women of brewster place was as good a book as heart of darkness, we would read women of brewster place." and in a way - dick, right? but he was a great teacher, narrow perspective aside, and i learned so much in that class, even though i had to read heart of darkness, which - yes - a great book for structure and themes and resonance, but such a snooze. so anyway, i know the other class read this book, and it is always on the school reading lists i have to fetch books for at the job, but i probably never would have read it without tatiana's suggestion, because i consider it a book that i had missed the boat on, associating it as i do with high school reading lists, and i am old. when i sat down this morning to write this review, i decided to see if i could find out what old roz was up to.

http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Be...



aaaaaand there it is. god, i love this man. don't let them get you, roz!! drive recklessly into the night!!! okay, that's all

so, the book. this thing is assigned to junior and high school students?? man, no wonder the teen pregnancy rates are where they are. this is a very sensual book. there are peeping toms, intercourse on horseback, the pouring of a frustrated libido into food-preparation, and lovemaking that causes actual sparks, and in one case, death.

this is not a spoiler, because i'm not giving names, and you probably already read this in your progressively anti-canon high school classes.

i am not a fan of romance, unless it is the forbidden, doomed romance of something like wuthering heights. and this one is doomed.

tita is destined to remain unmarried and childless, trapped in the family tradition that the youngest daughter is entrusted with the care of her mother until her death. bum deal, especially since she has fallen into passionate, reciprocal love with pedro, who ends up marrying her sister just to remain close to tita. terrible plan, by the way.

so her life becomes resentment and frustration, and food. tita is the one who is preserving all the family's traditional recipes, the ones that take all day to make, the ones that are served on special occasions, the ones that require not only ingredients, but are also flavored with the cook's mood. and these moods are wild and powerful, and affect all who eat the food in different ways.

this book reads almost like a folk- or fairy-tale. the magical realism is of the emotional variety, with ghosts and the physical manifestations of internal passions, rather than the magic standing in for larger social or political themes, which are present, but only as background detail. the focus here is on character.

the book is structured into twelve chapters, each one representing a month, january-december, but the action takes place over a number of years, so the significance of this is unclear to me. however, what is not unclear is that every chapter opens with a recipe, and from the first one, "christmas rolls," esquivel had my attention. sardines, chorizo, onion, oregano, and serrano chiles, tucked into a roll.

yeah, this is how you open a book.

it s incredibly fast-paced, and the recipes don't feel like they are taking you away from the action, they are enhancing it with a structure that is completely relevant to the action.

not crazy about the ending, but i definitely liked the rest of it. it awakened my senses, it made me hungry and happy and sad and all the shades in-between. and quite saucy, actually...

she felt so lost and lonely. one last chile in walnut sauce left on the platter after a fancy dinner couldn't feel any worse than she did. how many times had she eaten one of those treats, standing by herself in the kitchen, rather than let it be thrown away. when nobody eats the last chile on the plate, it's usually because none of them wants to look like a glutton, so even though they'd really like to devour it, they don't have the nerve to take it. it was as if they were rejecting that stuffed pepper, which contains every imaginable flavor; sweet as candied citron, juicy as a pomegranate, with the bit of pepper and subtlety of walnuts, that marvelous chile in walnut sauce. within it lies the secret of love, but it will never be penetrated, and all because it wouldn't be proper.

i think we all know what is going on here, don't we?

so - maybe not as enduring as heart of darkness, but much, much spicier.

come to my blog!

مسلسل مكسيكي سخيف
وخيبة أمل كبيرة

قصة حب فارغة المعنى والمضمون تم وضعها-او لصقها-فى قالب الواقعية السحرية، وفى رأيى هذا الكتاب هو ظلم للرواية الرومانسية والواقعية السحرية.

هنا فى"كالماء للشكولاتة" نجد مسار واسلوب "أوبرا الصابون" مجسدا بجدارة. شخصيات متطرفة فى تصرفاتها وأفعالها بدون منطق او مبرر. مسار احداث يمكن اختصاره فى جملة واحدة "واحدة حبت واحد ومعرفتش تتجوزه، فالمؤلف ف الاخر موت كل الناس الوحشة عشان يتجوزوا"
soap opera ده ولا مش soap opera يا متعلمين يا بتوع المدارس؟؟

فقدت تعاطفى مع قصة الحب وابطال تلك القصة منذ زواج بيدرو من اخت "تينا" . اعرف بالطبع بأننا عندما نقرأ رواية فأننا لا نحاكم تصرفات شخصياتها. ولكن ما الذى يدفعنى كقارئة للتعاطف مع بطلى تلك الرواية؟ لقد تم ظلم اخت "تينا" بدون اى مبرر، وكان من المطلوب من القارىء ان يكرهها او يراها مذنبة! لماذا؟ فقد كانت مثلها مثل بيدرو وتينا طفلة مراهقة مسلوبة الارداة، فبأى حق تُحاكم على نفس الذنب الذى ارتكبته اختها ووزجها؟

مزج وصفات الطعام مع احداث الرواية انتهى بى فى النهاية الى الاحساس بالممل وعدم المبالاة، فالوصفات بالنسبة لى اذا تشابهت مع الرواية فى شىء، فهى تتشابه معها فى الرتابة واللامنطقية.
كانت خط الاحداث يسير بشكل متوقع نمطى، لم يكن هناك حدث له معنى باستثناء ثورة وتمرد "تينا" على امها فى النهاية. غير ذلك لا شىء له معنى.

ومن عجائب الجودريدز ان يحصل مثل هذا الكتاب على هذا التقدير المرتفع
overrated والله

Ovo je priča o Titi, najmlađoj kćeri u obitelji De la Garza kojoj je okrutnom obiteljskom tradicijom uskraćena ljubav njena života. Umjesto udaje za Pedra, nju će zapasti dužnost da se brine o svojoj majci do njene smrti. Kada se Pedro, u želji da bude što bliže svojoj voljenoj Titi, oženi njenom sestrom Rosaurom, strasti na imanju De la Garza proključat će kao voda za čokoladu.

Cijeli osvrt pronađite ovdje: https://knjige-u-svom-filmu.webador.c...

"I don create art, I create chaos
لا أخلق الفن، بل أحدث الفوضي"



الفن؟
الفن يحدث الفوضي، الفن يبعثرك و يجمعك و يشكلك من جديد، الفن لا يشبه شيئًا ولا يشبهه شئ



بطلتنا صاحبة موهبة، و الموهبة لا تُقتل جراء محنة، بل، تستيقظ، تشتعل



لكل مكان عادات من صناعة قاطنيه، قوانين غير مكتوبة (بدأت في التصديق أن جميعا غير منطقية ظالمة) و لكل من يتخطاها الويل و النبذ و ما أسوأ



في هذا المكان البعيد جرت العادة ألا تتزوج الفتاة الصغري للعائلة (فقط الصغري) غير بعد وفاة أمها، و لأن الحياة لا تعطي محتاجًا لم تقع في الحب سوي صغري فتيات العائلة، و التي ظنت أن أمها الصارمة التي تحكم المزرعة و من فيها بالحديد و النار سيرق قلبها لمشهد لشابين متحابين و تكسر القاعدة و تتمني لفتاتها حياة سعيدة، بتلك البساطة



تقدم الشاب لخطبة بطلتنا، و خرجت الأم معلنة التالي: ستتزوج ابنتها الكبري من الشاب، أصدرت فرمانًا و تمت الخطبة و لم يستطع أحد أن يعترض، حتي الشاب، بتلك البساطة



طلبت من الابنة الصغري أن تستعد لإعداد مأدبة الزفاف، فهي طاهية العائلة، بتلك البساطة




بكت الفتاة علي سلم المزرعة طوال الليل، و في الصباح عندما جففت الشمس آثار سهرة أمس كنس الخدم سبعة أجولة من الملح استخدموها فيما بعد في الطهي لمدة عامين، بتلك البساطة



كان الاستعداد للزفاف علي قدمٍ و ساق، و كانت الفتاة تعد المأدبة و هي تبكي، بكت حتي اختلطت دموعها بمزيج كعكة الزفاف
في الحفل، و بعد تناول الطعام، تذكر كل الحاضرين أكثر فقد موجع و كأنه حدث منذ لحظة، و بكي الجميع كما لم يبكوا من قبل، بتلك البساطة



لتبدأ رحلة غريبة في بيت يسكن تحت سقفه علي كل شئ و نقيضه، السلطة الغاشمة عديمة القلب و الرحمة، مقابل الحب و الشغف، و الأهم: الأمل.




ليس غريبًا تحت سقف كهذا أن تسمع عن آحداث غرائبية كطفل انقطع حليب أمه و رفض كل طعام أن ترضعه خالته التي يحبها والده فيهدأ و ينمو جسده، و لا أن يموت عندما تكتشف الجدة الصارمة ذلك و تبعده عنها، و لا أن تغزل فتاة حزينة من أحلامها غطاء في ليالي السهر القمرية حتي يصير بحجم يغطي مزرعة بأكملها، و لا أن تعد فتاة ولهة أهداها حبيبها وردة الطعام فيصاب كل من يتذوقه بحب مشتعل مجنون ، فيذهب هذا ليعيد ما سبق و انقطع، و ذاك ليخبر أحدهم بما تكاسل عنه، و تلك التي تشعر بحرارة جسدها تتصاعد تدريجيا فتذهب للكابينة الخشبية لتستحم فيشتعل الخشب فتهرع للخارج و تظل الكابينة للأبد تفوح برائحة الورود، الرائحة التي جذبت رجلًا من الناحية المقابلة للبلدة ليأتي و يقابل الفتاة المشتعلة فيأخذها علي ظهر حصانه و لا يعود أحدهما مجددا، فتصدر الأم فرمانا بحرق صور الفتاة و منع ذكر اسمها مجددا كأنما لم تولد قط!




و الكثير و الذي لا تظن أني أفسدت عليك قصة ما حدث في تلك المزرعة بذكر ما سبق
لم أقل إلا شئ يسير.


لم الفن؟



لنعرف أن صناعة المعجزات لا تتطلب الكثير،مثلا..
كان يكفي بطلتنا أن تضع حبًا في المزيج، و كثير كثير من الشغف، لتحصل علي شئ فريد، يكفيه أن ينال منك حاسة واحدة حتي يمتلك باقي الحواس و لا يفلتها
كالفن.

Have you ever finished a book and thought "Man, this is going to be hard to review?" Because that's the first thing I thought when I finished this little book by Laura Esquivel. Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments With Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies is a book that really left me conflicted. There were things about it that I absolutely loved, and things about it that made me very angry. The only way I can think to write this review is to explain what I found good and bad, and let you all come to your own conclusions.

First, let's start with the good things. I loved the way this book was written. Like Water for Chocolate reads like a folktale, and a fun one at that. Some people's reviews that I've read found the magical realism trite or annoying, but I found it really endearing. The book managed to be an easy, quick read without sacrificing quality. Now, I cannot review this book without talking about the recipes. The book is split up into monthly installments, and each month has a recipe that Tita makes that ties the story together. The recipe is given at the beginning of each monthly chapter, and the instructions for preparation are woven into the story. Now, I'm a huge fan of cooking, so I found this idea to be really great. Since so much of the story takes place around and hinges on food, putting the recipes in the book makes perfect sense. I loved the way that the preparation instructions were included in the action of the story. Some people seem to find it gimmicky, but I thought it was a fun little addition to a book already filled with the tastes and smells of good Mexican cooking.

Now, for the things that troubled me. First of all, I have to admit that even though I'm a huge lover of all things fairy-tale and myth, I do not like the "love at first sight" narrative. It's not that I'm not a romantic, but I feel that real love is something that is built up from a knowledge of a person's character and personality, not something that magically happens when you see someone from across the room. As for Tita's beloved, Pedro, I honestly didn't like him. He spent the entire book being selfish, immature, and whiny. I have no idea what Tita saw in him. While this book started out with that "love at first sight" narrative, there is a point that it has the chance to go away from that narrative and treat love in a realistic and touching manner. Honestly, that was the ending I was hoping for, so I was pretty well disappointed with how the book actually ended. For me at least, the ending was the worst part of the book. I feel like it kept the book from really having any particular meaning or significance, and instead just avoided any difficulty and wrapped up as quickly and neatly as possible. It just wasn't satisfying.

There were also plot elements that I found really disturbing. There are some *spoilers* in the following paragraph. At one point Pedro completely ignores all concepts of consent and just assumes that Tita wants to have sex with him, even though she has denied him repeatedly because he is married to her sister and she is promised to someone else. Does he care about this? No. Is this seen as a problem in the book? No, of course not. As soon as Pedro grabs her and pulls her into a room, Tita magically forgets all of her previous objections, and it's just seen as more proof that they need to be together. Honestly, I find that to be pretty wrong. If somebody who I had repeatedly told to leave me alone just assumed that I didn't really mean it and that I really wanted to have sex with him and decided to pull me into a dark room, I would kick him so hard he would never want to have sex again. It wouldn't matter how much I actually loved him, if he can't respect my decisions he is not worth my time. Combine that incident with the not-very-sympathetic treatment of a rape victim at another point, and you can imagine that I wasn't exactly happy with the way this book treated consent. *End spoilers here* Basically, this book had some incidents that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and made me wonder exactly what kind of love the author is trying to promote.

Overall, the good writing and fun recipes in this book did not outweigh the problematic elements in the narrative. As much as I wanted to, I could not let myself simply enjoy this book, because problems with the plot and the ideas in the book kept jolting me out of the magical world of the narrative. This book was supposed to be a great love story, but I couldn't help feeling that Tita ended up with the wrong man. The ending of the book was completely disappointing, and only served to cement my growing discomfort. For those of you who don't mind the things that I mentioned, this book could be enjoyable. For those of you who want realistic love and respectful healthy relationships, I would suggest that you stay away from Like Water For Chocolate.

Rating: not recommended
Good things: enjoyable writing, fun format, successful magical realism
Bad things: unrealistic love, unhealthy relationships, consent problems, unsatisfying ending

For more reviews, visit my blog at http://readingwhilefemale.blogspot.com

Muitos anos depois voltei à história de amor de Tita e Pedro! E foi muito bom! Desta vez achei o Pedro um bocadinho tone, mas consegui ultrapassar isso, pois a história deles é linda, cheia de obstáculos e contratempos, mas com um final agridoce. Odiei a mamã Elena, acho que mais do que da primeira vez, uma mãe horrorosa, maldosa, odiosa, rancorosa, teimosa e venenosa, que nem depois de morta deixa de atormentar a filha.
A relação entre os sentimentos e o cozinhar, que para muitos é um verdadeiro ato de amor, dota esta história de um realismo mágico, que poderia ser catalogado como inverosímil, mas que a mim me encantou e transformou este livro numa saborosa e deliciosa leitura.
Tita e Pedro estavam destinados a ficarem juntos e aquele final com toques de magia é fantástico. E acho que este livro tem uma das comparações do que é a paixão mais maravilhosas de sempre:

Virou a cabeça e os seus olhos encontraram-se com os de Pedro. Nesse momento compreendeu perfeitamente o que deve sentir a massa de uma filhó ao entrar em contacto com o óleo a ferver. Era tão real a sensação de calor que invadia todo o seu corpo que perante o medo de que, como a uma filhó, lhe começassem a brotar borbulhas por todo o corpo (...) Tita não conseguiu sustentar esse olhar...

Como é que duas criaturas assim apaixonadas poderiam ser separadas?

#outubrohispanoamericano

Like Water for Chocolate is a romantic, emotional tale of Tita and Pedro, in turn-of-the-century Mexico with a blend of romance and lots of family drama and recipes.

Tita De La Garza, the youngest of Mama Elena's three daughters, whose fate, dictated by family tradition, is to remain single so that she can take care of her mother in her old age. Tita has learned all the family recipes and remedies. When Pedro, Tita's admirer, asks for Tita's hand in marriage, her mother refuses permission, offering instead Tita's older sister, Rosaura. Pedro accepts, thinking it will be a way to stay close to his one true love. As we witness the nurturing Tita's struggle to be true both to family tradition and to her own heart, we also realize that Tita has special talents, both in the kitchen and beyond dishes. Eventually, Tita must choose between marrying a loving, devoted doctor or saving herself for Pedro, her first true love.

Each chapter begins with a recipe and much of the action centers around the kitchen, the heart, and soul of a traditional Mexican family. Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love, and hope expressed through cooking. Each recipe was thematically related to what was happening in the story.

As for the plot, this is a fairy tale with elements of magical realism. So we have many magical elements embedded in the story like how Tita's thoughts get transferred to the food, ghosts, and paranormal elements among others. So, while the story is a mix of folklore and magical realism, some may find the magical elements too hard to believe.

Though I loved the fairy tale narration, there are many things that troubled me. There were also plot elements that I found really disturbing; especially the violence and sexual themes which make it unsuitable for teens IMHO. The ending of the book was pretty disappointing.

Overall, the writing was good and the fun recipes in this book will make you read the book till the end.

n  n
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I don't read a ton of literature now because I read a lot of the ones most worth reading when I was younger (at least, the ones I thought worth reading), but one of my recent projects is revisiting some of the books I read as a teen and seeing if I liked them just as much upon taking a second look. I read LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE when I was in high school and I remember being totally shocked at all the scandalous sex scenes and family drama. In many ways, this is kind of like a magic-realism take on the V.C. Andrews fucked-up family Gothic, with all of its secret lusts, hidden violence, and tempestuous relationships, all lorded over by an evil matriarch who has it in for the heroine and wants to make her miserable.



Narrated by the grand-niece of the heroine, this is a story about a star-crossed romance. Tita, the heroine, is the youngest daughter of Mama Elena, which means that she must take care of her mother until she dies. When Tita falls passionately in love with another man, Pedro, her mother rebuffs his offer and hitches him to her other daughter instead, Rosaura. Pedro agrees only because marrying Rosaura means being close to Tita and he hopes to have an affair with her.



Lots of other things happen too, and some of them are totally crazy. Like, imagine causing fireworks displays and visions of the Northern lights every time you bang (you might be in a Sarah J. Maas novel!) Feelings also get transmitted to food, so depending on the mood of the chef that day, you might find yourself moved to bitter tears (to the point of death) or so desperately horny that you set your bath on fire. This fantastical element keeps the story moving and gives it an interesting, fairytale-like quality that I found fascinating, even though some of the characters made me want to knock their heads together.



If you're new to the magic-realism genre, this is a fun book to start out with. It's short, which makes it easy to read, and has all these fabulous descriptions of rustic Mexican cuisine. The romance is also fun, even if it doesn't really have the sort of HEA romance readers might expect, and has an over-the-top bodice-ripper vibe that I think I appreciate more now as an adult who reads bodice-rippers. Some people might say it's too racy for teens but I disagree-- for some teen girls, this will probably be the hook that gets them into classic literature and shows them that it's not all stuffed shirts and dusty parlors.



3.5 stars

عاشق جادوهاش بودم!

I read this decades ago and then read it again during Covid. First time, I thought it was amazing. It was my first time reading magical realism. I was also probably very naive about the world and hadn’t been to Mexico except once on a church trip as a kid. So this book opened up lots of new pathways of thinking and understanding the world for me. Reading it a second time, I was more experienced in the world and better traveled. Given my perspective had changed, the book was less impactful. Still, I think back to it with a fond nostalgia.

Muchos de los recuerdos que atesoro de mi infancia se encuentran envueltos alrededor de una mesa. Grandes comidas entre familiares y amigos se convierten en momentos inolvidables, en los que se comparte gastronomía y amor en las cantidades adecuadas. Incluso los pasos previos, las ollas en los fogones, el rodillo amasando y el horno esperando los alimentos, esos instantes quedan congelados en la memoria con la felicidad que otorga la tradición y los sabores hogareños.

Como agua para chocolate contiene muchos de esos aromas, contextualizados en la historia de Tita, la pequeña de tres hermanas que se encuentra en una familia de antiguas tradiciones y con un gran vínculo con la cocina mexicana. Su situación la obliga a ser el miembro de la familia que no pueda casarse, pues tendrá que hacerse cargo de su madre. Sin embargo, aprenderá los sentimientos que provocan el amor y la pasión cuando conozca a Pedro, un joven que la ama recíprocamente.

Laura Esquivel narra la historia haciendo uso de un realismo mágico exquisito. Consigue mezclar unos ingredientes tan dispares como son las recetas familiares y las situaciones irreales propias del movimiento para elaborar un retrato fantástico de la maduración y el despertar sexual de la protagonista. Cada suceso está plagado de elementos fantásticos que, sorprendentemente, muestran una realidad que muchas veces no es posible exteriorizar. Todos los silencios, las dudas, los sentimientos que no se quieren mostrar, se expresan con estos hechos mágicos que tienen como origen las recetas familiares.

La revolución mexicana actúa como conector de las historias y prácticamente se percibe como un personaje más, mostrando pequeños destellos del movimiento político y social que se vivió en el país durante los primeros años del siglo XX. Precisamente este contexto, muy asociada a la libertad y al avance social, se puede extrapolar a los deseos y motivaciones de cada una de las hermanas de la familia. Mientras que Rosaura representa la tradición, el arraigo y las costumbres adquiridas desde el nacimiento, Gertrudis se muestra como símbolo de liberación, de progreso y desvinculación de las normas impuestas. Entre ellas, se describe la figura de Tita, indecisa en una batalla entre la razón y la pasión.

Como nota discordante, destaca el sabor amargo que me ha dejado el papel de Pedro. No creo que esté envejeciendo de la forma correcta y actualmente la sociedad ha avanzado mucho más de lo que lo ha hecho el propio personaje. Pese a contextualizarlo en un entorno de pasión, incluso de erotismo, sus actitudes dejan un regusto más propio del pasado que del futuro.

La ola latinoamericana del siglo XX ha dejado grandes obras de la literatura, muchas de ellas envueltas en un aura de tradiciones ancestrales que, pese a que demuestran la complejidad de estas relaciones, ofrecen un profundo amor hacia la familia. Como agua para chocolate es un gran ejemplo de ello y enseña que, en la vida, siempre se va a tener que combinar el dulce con el amargo.

Magical realism is my favourite genre, but this didn't have quite enough ooomph for me, though it was a pleasant enough read.
There is, however, an alliterative line of such chutzpah that she sells sea shells by the sea shore is made to seem positively prosaic. Here it is, verbatim: "Unquestionably, when it came to dividing, dismantling, dismembering, desolating, detaching, dispossessing, destroying or dominating, Mama Elena was a pro".

3.5, rounded up to 4