Like Water for Chocolate
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U.S book cover
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| Author | Laura Esquivel |
|---|---|
| Original title | Como agua para chocolate |
| Country | Mexico |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre | Romance, Magical realism, Tragedy |
| Publisher | Doubleday, 1992 (Mexico) Perfection Learning, 1995 (U.S) |
| Pages | 256 (Spanish) |
| ISBN | (Spanish) (English) |
Like Water for Chocolate (Spanish: Como agua para chocolate) is a popular novel published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist and screenwriter Laura Esquivel.
The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life to marry her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her mother's upholding of the family tradition of the youngest daughter not marrying but taking care of her mother until the day she dies. Tita is only able to express herself when she cooks.
Esquivel employs magical realism to combine the supernatural with the ordinary throughout the novel.
The book is divided into 12 sections named after the months of the year, starting in January and continuing in December. Each section begins with a Mexican recipe. The chapters outline the preparation of the dish and ties it to an event in the protagonist's life.
Tita de la Garza, the novel's main protagonist, is 15 at the start of the story. She lives with her mother Mama Elena, and her older sisters Gertrudis and Rosaura, on a ranch near the Mexico – US border.
Pedro is a neighbor and another main protagonist with whom Tita falls in love at first sight. The feeling turns out to be mutual, so Pedro asks Mama Elena for Tita’s hand in marriage. Unfortunately, Mama Elena forbids it, citing the de la Garza family tradition that the youngest daughter (in this case Tita) must remain unmarried and take care of her mother until her mother's death. She suggests that Pedro marries Tita's sister, Rosaura, instead of Tita. In order to stay close to Tita, Pedro decides to follow Mama Elena's advice.
Tita has a love of the kitchen and a deep connection with food, a skill enhanced by the fact that Nacha, the family cook, was her primary caretaker as Tita grew up. Her love for cooking also comes from the fact that she was born in the kitchen.
In preparation of the wedding, Tita is forced to prepare the cake with Nacha. While preparing the cake, Tita is over come with sadness, and cries into the cake batter. At the wedding everyone gets violently sick, vomiting everywhere. Suspecting Tita was behind the incident, Mama Elena punishes Tita. After the wedding, Nacha is found dead, with a picture of her fiancé.
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Wikipedia