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Summary: Law of Love: Spiritual Journey
Review: The Law of Love is a tremendously original and intriguing read. The multimedia form of the novel, which includes past life illustration sequences that are accompanied by trancendental opera classics and catchy, comical transition music, provides a unique experience and alternate perception of the way a story is told. The tale itself follows the heroine on her journey for a soul mate and explores the interactions of human spirits thoughout time and our karmic influences upon one another. The extra cd component and the illustrations allow time to meditate upon the story and one's own experience which consequently enables one to integrate oneself into the story to some degree. A novel approach to novel writing and spiritual questioning.
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Summary: A near-future Mexican multi-media action-romance novel ...
Review: ... about karmic justice and divine love. Complete with angels and demons. There. Did I get your attenion? :)"The Law of Love" is an incredibly ambitious project by the author of "Like Water for Chocolate," and is almost worth it for the light it sheds on her previous work. I've heard people write off Laura Esquivel as an author of "chick books" -- the marketing assumption being that if you add recipes, more women will read them. I felt the theme of kitchen witchery was a little too strong in "Chocolate" to ignore ... but "Law" gives a much clearer picture. Esquivel seems to be fascinated by the idea of memory recall through sensory stimulation. In "Chocolate," the stimulation was food. In "Law," it's music. Included with the hardback was a CD of Mexican music. I didn't much like it, but it is indeed meant to be played at certain times in the book where memories will be crucial. Also, during points in the book where a character undergoes a past-life recall, the pages switch to unnarrated, very dreamily painted comics -- the regression is only mulled over in words as sort of an afterthought. Again, incredibly ambitious. Unfortunately, considering the scope, I didn't find it terribly well done. Which is too bad, because I really wanted to *love* this book. At best, I just like it. The characters go from being intelligent people who are jerked around by circumstance to lovable, zany characters fumbling around with forces some of them might barely comprehend. The ending is a very Monte Hall, "let's show 'em what's behind Door Number Three!" affair. I question whether it could have gone any other way, but I feel that the fact that I was distanced enough from the book to be paying more attention to the style of the ending than caring if the story had progressed is rather telling of the book's style. I could picture the director of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" making "Law" into a movie (most likely starring Antonio Bandaras as either the main love interest or the guardian angel) -- that's how weird the story became. And yet, this book gave me a lot to think about. I feel that if Esquivel can't consistently deliver stories the calibur of "Like Water for Chocolate," it's at least fascinating to watch her take risks with novels like "The Law of Love." Did she take on too much? Possibly. But I don't feel that it was a wasted effort. I just feel that it could have been a better story.
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Summary: To Touch Stars, Man's Reach Must Exceed His Grasp
Review: This novel is brilliant in what it attempts to do more than in what it accomplishes. Reading the customer reviews reminds me of a favorite quote from The Urantia Book, "Many intelligent and well-meaning men ... maintain that modern civilization could not have been built upon the teachings of Jesus -- and they are partially right. But all such doubters forget that a much better civilization could have been built upon his teachings, and sometime will be." Esquivel's novel never mentions Jesus, but is filled with angels and spirits who both inhabit and influence the earthly plane. We get so used to considering news headlines with murder and war as reality, that we cannot imagine a world based on "The Law of Love," and so this book seems too fantastic. To be kind, we English-speakers must realize this is a translated work. I would expect that the choppy writing comes from language change from the original Spanish. The science fiction devices which can print out mental pictures like photographs from plants as well as from past lives intrigued me. This is a great sci-fi detective novel, complicated by past lives, virtual reality television, walls that can speak, and body hopping. You have to give Esquivel A+ for creative imagination. The use of the pictures was most revolutionary. I looked at them before I read the book and was not overly impressed just as art. But the amazing thing is that when you read the novel, the pictures are not illustrations of things previously described, but pictures of past-life experiences that give you clues and actually further the plot. Remember "a picture is worth a 1,000 words"! We experience the dream-sequence images along with the characters as you read. This was a new and amazing experience for me! The music CD completed the multi-sensory experience. Esquivel is pushing the borders of what it means to read a novel. All in all, this is a great book for what it attempts to do. Don't attempt it if your mind is TOO SMALL!
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Summary: A little loco?
Review: "The Law of Love" was translated from Spanish (the author Laura Esquivel lives in Mexico). My confusion over many parts of the book led me to wonder whether something was lost in the translation. But I can hardly imagine this crazy story making sense in ANY language. Set in the future, its premise is that people undergo many reincarnations and must continually come into contact with the same people until they resolve any problems with their relationships. Esquivel invents countless innovations and concepts -- virtual TV, body switching, regression to previous lives through music, thought-reading computers, computers that interfere with thought-reading computers... Often while reading I had the feeling that Esquivel wrote herself into a corner, then created a goofy new invention or outrageous plot twist in order to extricate herself. Piled on top of a wildly spinning plot is a new-age philosophy concerning the law of love -- something about radiating peace, a pyramid, and crystals. Perhaps this book's secret is not to take anything it says seriously, but rather to sit back and enjoy the wild ride.
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Summary: A Colourful Book filled with Delights
Review: Okay so I am sucker for a soppy book every now and then! I liked this book; it was exciting, sad, funny and charming. I liked the idea of reincarnation and the fact that what you do in your past lives, affects you in your present life. That is the theme of the book and yes the storyline does jump about a bit but hey! that makes it all the more enjoyable, you never know what is going to happen next, which for some people can be annoying but for me was great! I also loved the fact it included a CD with lots of classical music, something to listen to when reading. Also the colour photos were a nice touch too, and gave a stronger sense of what was happening throughout the novel. Laura Esquivel has written another of my favourite books, "Like Water for Chocolate," and she has not let me down with "The Law of Love." This book is enjoyable simply because it is a fantasy. Read it for that reason alone, and you will enjoy it all the more. It's a treat of a book and the CD is great too.
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Summary: Disturbed themes, Bad story-telling
Review: Mexico hundreds of years from now: people regressing to past lives through music, communicating with plants by amazing new technology, and uniting with their twin souls through ethereal lovemaking. Sounds fascinating, but this book ultimately lived up to none of my expectations. The characters are ultra-flat, the plot is silly and stilted, and the recurring themes would be laughable if they weren't so disturbing: The quality of one's life is utterly out of one's control, since it is determined part and parcel by what we've done in our past lives? Rape is a crime of passion and misunderstanding, rather than of violence? People can only learn through direct experience, not ever through reason or imagination? Yikes!
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Summary: Not Bad, Not What I Expected
Review: Well, this was certainly not the book I expected from Laura Esquivel. It certainly had its good points: imaginative setting, interesting premise for her story; however, all this was overshaddowed by the need for a very thorough editing. I found the ending a bit sloppy and the situations a little too easy for the characters to solve. Isabel and Mammon made an interesting contrast for Azucena and her guardian angel (I don't have the book handy and can't spell the name). Like Water for Chocolate was much better.
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Summary: This book is an experience not to missed!
Review: This is the first book I have ever read (fictional novel) that was a total multi-sensory experience. The story was not only interesting but was clever and fun to read. The art and music completed the experience. I have recommended this book to all of my friends. I hated to see it end.
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Summary: waste of money and time
Review: When I read the plot description for this book - I was excited about reading something different and unusual. Despite a nice cover and intriguing topic promised, I have found myself listening to the most boring and primitive audio book ever. Hoping to find something good about it towards the end at least I was truly dissapointed. The book is too simple, too plain, too predictable. It reminds me of the story you tell to a child while making things up as you go. When the characters seem to be in trouble, magically something appears to resque them without any additional preview of its existence in the first place. The language is very plain and constant description of something trivial simplifies characters' feelings and thoughts, while they could seem very deep and significant to the reader if done otherwise. There is no magic, just a collection of events full naive of trivia.
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Summary: Nice Concept
Review: I really enjoyed the multimedia experience that reading this book offered. I think Laura Esquivel is redefining how we view books. I don't think this was great work of liturature, but it was a fun read and a great book for meditation and introspection . . . . not to mention dancing.
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