This review is part of the volunteer Cannonball Read V. And the magical elements of the story - the potions and home remedies and old wives’ tales - add to the story’s appeal. The descriptions of the food and the meals are lush and sensual. The relationship between Pedro and Tita is sad and sincere and intense. It is a love story, a fairy tale and a cookbook. With Like Water for Chocolate Laura Esquivel has created a unique story that is appealing on many levels. Rosaura lacks Tita’s passion for cooking her life and her relationship with Pedro is bland and unappealing. And through her cooking she is able to affect her family, her surroundings and her fate. Tita was literally born in the kitchen so she has always been “wrapped up in the delights of food.” She finds comfort, inspiration, refuge and confidence in the kitchen. The author uses the pleasures of food, meal preparation and eating a meal as metaphors for love and life and passion. The rest of the novel rotates around the emotional love affair between Tita and Pedro, and their attempts to be together despite Rosaura, Pedro’s children, Mama Elena and the revolution that occasionally interrupts their lives.īut the thing that brings everyone in this novel together and ties all the stories together is food. Instead she offers her other daughter Rosaura, and Pedro accepts, if only to remain physically close to Tita. For generations no one questioned the tradition but then Tita meets Pedro, and he announces his intent to marry her. According to tradition Tita cannot marry but must take care of Mama Elena. Mama Elena is like a Disney villainess - hypocritical, sadistic, abusive and vain. It is divided into 12 chapters, each representing a month, a recipe and a significant event in the life of Tita, the youngest daughter of Mama Elena De la Garza. The novel takes place in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Even so, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. I saw the movie Like Water for Chocolate years ago, so I knew the story before reading the book.

Like water for chocolate book