I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t really meant to be! Drawn in by its unique format as a story told within recipes, home remedies and monthly instalments, I felt a bit ripped off when many of the recipes were just fodder at the start and then Esquivel would go on to detail the melodramatic lives of our main characters.
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But I can’t deny that the foodie parts of Like Water For Chocolate ARE good and they WILL make you hungry. Those and the magical realism parts were the novel’s only saving graces as far as I’m concerned, and the two were tied together nicely! Some of Tita’s escapades in the kitchen were rather entertaining, as her thoughts and feelings while cooking translated into unfortunate consequences for those eating her dishes (or not so unfortunate, depending on how you view riding off naked on a horse with a rugged rebel leader).
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For the rest of the book... eh I just never really clicked with it! I don’t speak Spanish so I don’t know what the original is like, but Spanish is such a rich and melodic language that I can only imagine it reads a lot better than the English. I found the English translation to be, and I’m sorry to say it, rather dull and unexciting.
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The characters were interesting enough, but as I mentioned when I was reading it, it is pure soap opera. Plenty of marriages (to the wrong people), an overbearing matriarch, poor Tita (likeable enough, don’t get me wrong!) and much sex and scandal.
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A fun read, if you’re not looking for anything too serious and fancy getting a craving for Mexican food!