Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
The bestselling phenomenon and inspiration for the award-winning film.Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico blends poignant romance and bittersweet wit. This classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother’s womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef, using cooking to express herself and sharing recipes with readers along the way.
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
Product Description
Additional Information
Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
5 reviews for Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
In Your Hands: Shop Categories
ATXMomma –
I read this book in a matter of hours
I found this book captivating from the start, and finished it in less than a day. I just couldn’t be pulled form its pages. The cultural lore and imagery used in this story’s telling was as powerful and captivating as it was fantastical. As wild as the descriptions could be, they were also profoundly true as a metaphor for the potential of human reactions in the secret and safe chambers of our minds- where our emotions take place without restraint; pure and unfiltered.
Jennifer –
If you like mystical realism this might be a book you’d want to check out
Like Water for Chocolate takes place during the Mexican revolution, and is the story of the De La Garza family. Their story is told through recipes and home remedies, and the book is broken out into twelve chapters; each chapter is one month of the year. However, the story takes place over a twenty-year period.I liked some of the themes in the book: finding a sense of purpose in one’s life, the things we give importance to that maybe aren’t so important, and what love really is.If you like mystical realism this might be a book you’d want to check out.
Kiiks –
Thoroughly entertaining story; brought me to love Magical Realism
My book club read this book Mexico as we “read our way around the world.” We were not disappointed! This was my first introduction to magical realism, and I was in love from the first page. Don’t expect the characters or story to be extremely developed. This is one of those books that you might find yourself speeding through and then wildly contemplating once it’s over. While the story isn’t pointedly about Mexican history or culture, we learned about those aspects in perfect little doses through the writing style and story line. My group was interested and entertained. I enjoyed the book so much that I bought myself a copy after I read the library’s copy.
Bruce Wilson –
Magical realism and passionate woman
This is a well crafted novel, all the more so for the way it combines magical realism, narrative and dialogue. Just like a recipe. ‘Crafted’ is perhaps the wrong word. There is too much emotion, imagery, involved narrative. It is more like music. The control of tempo is excellent. To start with I thought the recipies inserted into the text were unnecessary. They are not. They are there to slow the pace. At the beginning of a chapter they are like a prelude, and woven into the story, often as part of the magical realism. A magical potion. But it works the other way too. Passions are a drug and food can be a an antidote. There is much more to praise. It deserved literary prizes (published 1989). It is enthralling reading. Just read it.
Kindle Customer –
Strange yet beautiful
I had been recommended this book for a long time by a friend and finally got around to reading it over Christmas. There was much to love; a compelling storyline, the fascination of Mexican culture and folklore, and the never-ending alchemy of the many recipes featured. But at times the feminist in me just wanted to shake certain characters, and whilst I’m certainly no stranger to magical realism, having grown up on the ley lines of Glastonbury, some of the scenarios we encounter as readers are more than a little far fetched! If you are after a completely different novel though, this is definitely it, and, despite my subjective niggles here and there, it is gorgeous and breathtakingly intoxicating.