Rating: 
Summary: Esquivel's Tribute to Dad Falls Short of Allende's Paula
Review: As a fan of both "Like Water for Chocolate" and "The Law of Love" I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into Laura Esquivel's latest work "As Swift As Desire." To me, she's a writer who carries her readers through a magical, mystical journey through Mexico's culture and history through food, sexuality and love. But with this novel, I found little of what I enjoy most about reading Esquivel. This time, my teeth bit into the book hitting nothing but hard cardboard. The story felt like a repetitive draft of a novel she's sent to her publisher to edit or guide. The first chapter leads you to believe you'd be guided by the Mayan calendar and spirit of a people to another perfect love story. But, that theme is quickly forgotten as the story unfolds. I think that Esquivel attempted to create what Isabel Allende did with her book "Paula" (The true story of the relationship Allende had with her beloved daughter who lies comatose throughout the entire book.). "Paula" is heart-wrenching and powerful as we learn about the Allende family history with each chapter of the book. Esquivel tries a similar approach in this story of her dying father, but for me it fell short of the passionate enlightening prose I've become accostumed to with her previous work. The transitions from past to present weren't always clear enough for me. Esquivel's usual magic and passion was completely absent in this story. True Esquivel fans most likely will read it for themselves -- as I did. But if you are just "curious," I recommend waiting for the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: This book has something...
Review: But sadly it is not a point.
Rating:
Summary: Mildly Entertaining
Review: For holding such a wonderful gift of communication, Jubilo was weak, and instead of trying to solve his problems with Lucha, he escalated them through lack of communication. I understand that Jubilo's inability to communicate with the woman that he loved was his tragic flaw, but the author did not give me any reason to feel his sorrow and torment. I felt as if the third person narration presented me with a sense of aloofness and an unsympathetic attitude toward the Chi family.
Rating:
Summary: Mildly Entertaining
Review: For holding such a wonderful gift of communication, Jubilo was weak, and instead of trying to solve his problems with Lucha, he escalated them through lack of communication. I understand that Jubilo's inability to communicate with the woman that he loved was his tragic flaw, but the author did not give me any reason to feel his sorrow and torment. I felt as if the third person narration presented me with a sense of aloofness and an unsympathetic attitude toward the Chi family.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly Cliched
Review: I enjoyed reading the book. It was a quick read and it covered a lot of grounds: ethnic difference, socio-economic disparities, love, desire, and that mysterious aspect of human emotion, hate. I would recommend it because it's innovative and intelligent. I especially enjoyed it because Ms. Esquivel assumed her readers to be at a certain level of sophistication and did not go into too much unnecessary detail.
Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical
Review: I enjoyed reading the book. It was a quick read and it covered a lot of grounds: ethnic difference, socio-economic disparities, love, desire, and that mysterious aspect of human emotion, hate. I would recommend it because it's innovative and intelligent. I especially enjoyed it because Ms. Esquivel assumed her readers to be at a certain level of sophistication and did not go into too much unnecessary detail.
Rating:
Summary: not nearly as good as her other books
Review: I enjoyed the opening chapters with the Mayan calendar theme and the period details, but then things fall apart as Esquivel either recycles older material or whips off the remainder of the book in 10 minutes time. It's a quick read so it's not like you'll spend more than an hour reading it and the plot was interesting and touching, but it just doesn't hold together. In short, it's not very magical or interesting past the opening chapters. Her father sounds like an amazing man -- there are some great scenes, but a bunch of great scenes don't make a great novel unless they are more seamlessly intergrated. I couldn't get over the feeling that this was an old composition dressed up quickly for publication. Fans should read it anyway for the plot, but don't expect anything on a par with Like Water for Chocolate. This translation felt stilted in places.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly Cliched
Review: I loved "Like Water for Chocolate" so I was sure I would love "Swift as Desire" just as much. Or almost just as much. And, the opening chapters were quite engrossing and enjoyable. After that, however, the book just seemed to fall apart, or to put it more correctly, it never came together."Swift as Desire" is Laura Esquivel's autobiographical tribute to her own father and perhaps this is a part of the problem with the book. Perhaps Esquivel just couldn't distance herself enough from her subject matter to manipulate it from "life" into "literature." "Swift as Desire" is a romance based on Esquivel's father's work as a telegraph operator in Mexico. Apparently, being a telegraph operator was the perfect job for Jubilo since he was born with the gift of knowing just what others wanted to express. In other words, he could "read" the intention behind their words and, he knew which words to choose to best convey those intentions. A character such as Jubilo does give Esquivel the opportunity to insert much comedy into her narrative. For me, one of the best examples comes when Jubilo acts as interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and Spanish-speaking mother. Jubilo was careful to soften what these ladies said to each other and the effect is often quite amusing. When Jubilo discovers the telegraph, he knows he has come into his own. The way he saw it, only he would know what people wanted to say to each other so, therefore, he could revise what was being said for maximum impact...and maximum joy, of course. Jubilo, it should be noted, didn't have a malicious bone in his body. Enter Lucha. Lucha is the proud and beautiful daughter of a wealthy Mexican family. Jubilo and Lucha fall deeply in love and soon marry and, even though Mexican women of that era did not, as a general rule, work outside their home, Lucha takes a job as secretary at the telegraph company where Jubilo works. Jubilo and Lucha find that this job rewards them in two ways. First, they can flirt with each other all day long and, at times, even engage in romantic intimacies, and second, the extra income helps Lucha to live with some of the luxuries she had become accustomed to in the home of her parents. If all of this seems idyllic, it isn't. Don Pedro, Jubilo's and Lucha's boss is around to spoil things when he begins to desire Lucha for himself. I have never been a fan of flashbacks, unless they are done extremely well and this is a book told in flashbacks. The narrator is Lluvia (and why should a man as apparently joyful as Jubilo give his daughter such a depressing name?), the daughter of Jubilo and Lucha. By the time Lluvia gets around to telling the story of her parents, Lucha is dead and Jubilo is suffering from both Parkinson's disease and blindness. To ease his sufferings, Lluvia brings him a telegraph, something she hopes will help him communicate with others. The telegraph is one of the book's strong points as well as one of its weakest. When Jubilo is young, the telegraph is a metaphor for desire and the communication of desire, and, as such, it works well. However, in the later section of the book, Esquivel "explains" so much of what she is attempting to do that it really got tiresome. This is a sweet and rather frothy little tale and it needed a much lighter touch than Esquivel seems willing to give it. The characters also suffer in this book. In "Like Water for Chocolate," I thought every female character was extremely well-developed and unique. In "Swift as Desire," however, only Jubilo and Lucha are developed and come off as real and believable. Don Pedro is the quintessential villainous caricature and Lluvia is so thinly developed she is almost ghostlike. Esquivel obviously meant this book to be a tribute to a loving (and loved) father. I feel bad for her that it didn't come out better than it did, for it did have potential. Writing students are warned, time and time again, to be very wary of autobiographical material. Perhaps, it is a warning Esquivel should have taken more to heart. "Swift as Desire" isn't a bad way to spend an evening, but it certainly doesn't measure up to "Like Water for Chocolate." In fact, it doesn't even come close.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly Cliched
Review: I loved "Like Water for Chocolate" so I was sure I would love "Swift as Desire" just as much. Or almost just as much. And, the opening chapters were quite engrossing and enjoyable. After that, however, the book just seemed to fall apart, or to put it more correctly, it never came together. "Swift as Desire" is Laura Esquivel's autobiographical tribute to her own father and perhaps this is a part of the problem with the book. Perhaps Esquivel just couldn't distance herself enough from her subject matter to manipulate it from "life" into "literature." "Swift as Desire" is a romance based on Esquivel's father's work as a telegraph operator in Mexico. Apparently, being a telegraph operator was the perfect job for Jubilo since he was born with the gift of knowing just what others wanted to express. In other words, he could "read" the intention behind their words and, he knew which words to choose to best convey those intentions. A character such as Jubilo does give Esquivel the opportunity to insert much comedy into her narrative. For me, one of the best examples comes when Jubilo acts as interpreter between his warring Mayan grandmother and Spanish-speaking mother. Jubilo was careful to soften what these ladies said to each other and the effect is often quite amusing. When Jubilo discovers the telegraph, he knows he has come into his own. The way he saw it, only he would know what people wanted to say to each other so, therefore, he could revise what was being said for maximum impact...and maximum joy, of course. Jubilo, it should be noted, didn't have a malicious bone in his body. Enter Lucha. Lucha is the proud and beautiful daughter of a wealthy Mexican family. Jubilo and Lucha fall deeply in love and soon marry and, even though Mexican women of that era did not, as a general rule, work outside their home, Lucha takes a job as secretary at the telegraph company where Jubilo works. Jubilo and Lucha find that this job rewards them in two ways. First, they can flirt with each other all day long and, at times, even engage in romantic intimacies, and second, the extra income helps Lucha to live with some of the luxuries she had become accustomed to in the home of her parents. If all of this seems idyllic, it isn't. Don Pedro, Jubilo's and Lucha's boss is around to spoil things when he begins to desire Lucha for himself. I have never been a fan of flashbacks, unless they are done extremely well and this is a book told in flashbacks. The narrator is Lluvia (and why should a man as apparently joyful as Jubilo give his daughter such a depressing name?), the daughter of Jubilo and Lucha. By the time Lluvia gets around to telling the story of her parents, Lucha is dead and Jubilo is suffering from both Parkinson's disease and blindness. To ease his sufferings, Lluvia brings him a telegraph, something she hopes will help him communicate with others. The telegraph is one of the book's strong points as well as one of its weakest. When Jubilo is young, the telegraph is a metaphor for desire and the communication of desire, and, as such, it works well. However, in the later section of the book, Esquivel "explains" so much of what she is attempting to do that it really got tiresome. This is a sweet and rather frothy little tale and it needed a much lighter touch than Esquivel seems willing to give it. The characters also suffer in this book. In "Like Water for Chocolate," I thought every female character was extremely well-developed and unique. In "Swift as Desire," however, only Jubilo and Lucha are developed and come off as real and believable. Don Pedro is the quintessential villainous caricature and Lluvia is so thinly developed she is almost ghostlike. Esquivel obviously meant this book to be a tribute to a loving (and loved) father. I feel bad for her that it didn't come out better than it did, for it did have potential. Writing students are warned, time and time again, to be very wary of autobiographical material. Perhaps, it is a warning Esquivel should have taken more to heart. "Swift as Desire" isn't a bad way to spend an evening, but it certainly doesn't measure up to "Like Water for Chocolate." In fact, it doesn't even come close.
Rating:
Summary: A romantic story
Review: I picked this book up because I thoroughly enjoyed Like Water for Chocolate (and the movie) ~~ and while it doesn't compete with her famous novel, this book is a very sweet story. A man has a gift to make everyone around him happy ~~ he is able to discern their discontent and find a way to make them feel better. Only one person who he cannot make happy and that is his wife. Lucha is a Mexican girl who has never known want or hunger. Jubilio tries everything in his power to make her happy and succeeded for many years till a tragedy drove them apart. The story is told from their daughter's point of view ~~ how a man driven to please his woman loses his woman after all ~~ and the secret yearnings of all of our hearts. This is an exquistely-written novel on the heart and love between a man and a woman. And this is also a reflection on a daughter's love for her father ~~ this is a must-read for every daddy's girl. Sometimes you don't realize how blessed you are till something happens. And sometimes it is too late. This is a poignant story and a reminder that life is ever-fleeting. Even though it's not written in the same calibar as Like Water for Chocolate, it is still a lovely tome to add to your library or reading list. Sometimes one needs a small novel to remind us of the important things in life. 10-31-03
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