The Shortest Best Book List Ever and A Formal Review

This is the time of year when lists are made. Lists that record the 25, 50 and 100 best and worst moments of the previous year. Who really wants to revisit the most read digital stories of 2023 that include cataclysmic world-changing events, rich and famous people fighting, gun-toting children, wildfires, floods, and general mayhem?

I tend to gravitate towards lists that include the best movies and t.v. shows, such as this one from NPR. My favorite lists to peruse, however, are book lists from publishers such as the New Yorker. I like reading the titles and researching the authors but have become a picky reader in my curmudgeonly old age of 50-plus years. While reading about the creative talents and thrilling storylines, I find myself yearning to return to pieces of work that are familiar to me.

My own list of favorite books has not varied much over the years. In fact, my core list is comprised of 5 texts, a number much smaller than 50 and still counting. In no particular order, here is my must-read list:

1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
2. I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
3. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
4. The Princess Bride by William Goldman; and
5. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

Every year, I re-read at least one of these books. This past year, I re-read Like Water for Chocolate during Hispanic Heritage Month 2023. I was just as pleased by its magical realism as I was the first time I picked it up. I can’t recall if I initially read it of my own volition or if it was an assignment for a college class. I do remember that I received Purple Hippo as a Christmas gift from my father around the same time I first read Like Water for Chocolate. I remember because being gifted Purple Hippo as a twenty-something year old college student was a bit unusual, sort of like some of the events in Like Water for Chocolate. Purple Hippo was with me when I read the novel the first time, and he was with me when I read it again this past October.

“Purple Hippo,” I said when I finished the first chapter for the twelfth time, “I should write a formal review of this book.”

And so I did. I hope you enjoy the review, which will be the first formal review of all the books on my timeless must-read list.

Aren’t you grateful to have a timeless and manageable book list?

By the way, the movie Like Water for Chocolate is one of my all-time favorite films. The same is true for the novel and movie The Princess Bride. This will be true for fifty years and counting (at least, for me!).

And now, it is time for the review.

Review
Reviewed Work: Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies, translated by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen (Doubleday, 1992), 246 pp. ISBN 0-385-42016-1.

Review by: A. M. Cosgrove Wimberly
Literary Mama
571 words
September 26, 2023

Laura Esquivel is a Mexican novelist and screenplay writer. Her debut novel, Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies, was published in 1989. Esquivel rewrote the novel as a screenplay and the movie, Like Water for Chocolate, released in 1993, received critical acclaim across the globe. A somewhat simple love story is at the heart of this novel, but the story encapsulates so much more than forbidden lust. The hyperbolic uses of light and dark, hot and cold, wet and dry make the impossible seem possible.

The first example of magical realism occurs in the introductory pages of the novel. Mama Elena’s tears flood the family farm home when she births Tita. Mama Elena births Tita on the kitchen table because she was preparing a meal with the family cook, Nacha. The source of Mama Elena’s tears stemmed from the birthing process and the chopped onions, which are known to make people cry. Nacha, who mopped the tears off the floors, collected “enough salt to fill a ten-pound sack.” Totally believable, right? In Esquivel’s novel, it is.

Even though the novel is full of impossible magical moments, Esquivel manages to realistically harness the setting, culture, and history of the story. Each chapter represents a month and begins with a traditional Mexican family recipe. The recipes indicate the de la Garza farm’s ability to sustain an entire community. Following custom, Tita, the youngest of Mama Elena’s daughters, is doomed to be her mother’s caretaker for life. As an infant, Tita is paired with Nacha in the kitchen and eventually succeeds Nacha as the family cook. The de la Garza homestead is in a small town in northern Mexico. The Mexican Revolution impacts the de la Garza family in expected and unexpected ways.

The theme of love and loss permeates the story and is the source of the magical realism moments. Tita loves Pedro, and Pedro loves Tita. Mama Elena forbids their marriage; Tita can only successfully serve one person, Mama Elena. Mama Elena offers her older daughter Rosaura as Pedro’s wife. Pedro agrees to the union to remain close to Tita. Even though his intentions are good, they compromise Tita’s well-being. Mama Elena punishes Tita every time the two lovers so much as look at one another. Tita’s ability to communicate is stripped from her, so she unwillingly and unknowingly does so through her cooking. Her emotions infuse her meals. The guests of the de la Garza farm leave the dinner table in frenzies of sadness, burning desires, lust, and love.

In addition to realistically portraying the setting, history, and culture of the novel, Esquivel exquisitely explores relationships. No relationship is simple, and all connect to Tita. Tita navigates her sister’s marriage to her lover, her mother’s vengeance, and Pedro’s pleas for pleasure. Tita’s position as caregiver extends to the animals and land that provide food for the meals she prepares, further connecting her to place, earth, and the universe. The natural world doesn’t allow Tita to react to the relationship stresses in her life. Therefore, when she catalyzes moments of magical realism, the results of her actions are emotionally impactful and believable.

Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies is a delightful read. Anyone interested in traditional cooking, Mexican history and heritage, family relationships, or romantic stories will enjoy this sweet and savory novel.