Rating: 
Summary: Like Water for Chocolate Deserves 3.5 Stars!!!
Review: I think this book read more like a fairy tale, and I've yet to experiment with any of the recipes.
Tita loves Pedro,but because she's the youngest daughter, tradition has other plans for her. Pedro marries her
older sister instead just to be closer to Tita, but things don't work out as they'd like.
This book reminded me very much of Cinderella(the fairy tale). This was a good story, but it could have been much
better. For that reason, this reviewer gives Like Water for Chocolate 3.5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: The power of emotions
Review: "Like Water for Chocolate" combines the techniques of magical realism with sensual romance and magnificent cooking to create a truly unique novel. We are taken through the life of Tita De La Garza, the passionate woman stuck between a forbidden love and the wrath of her traditional mother. We follow her through her struggle to find love and individuality while balancing her extraordinary gift to enchant the kitchen. Through the monthly installments in the novel you will get a small taste of what life was like in the twentieth century in Mexico yet also see the world through the intense emotion that guides you through the pages. The vivid symbols of heat and fire permeate the novel and arouse strong emotions of lust and love. If the intensity of the novel does not keep the pages turning then the recipes that are uniquely woven into the story surely will. I recommend this novel to anybody who is interested in a quick read that keeps you coming back every time you put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: Like water for chocolate...
Review: A very fun and funny read (in a good way). I've enjoyed talking about it with the girls.
Rating:
Summary: a feast of the 5 senses, come to life
Review: besides the excellent recipes wholly printed in the book version, here is my review of the movie, which is not as detailed nor able to be prolonged but is true to the book (unlike other movie versions of books in which some stuff is changed):after you watch this movie, you will either want to eat, cook (preferably one of the mentioned recipes), make love or all three! i saw the version dubbed in spanish, and also read 3 selected chapters from the book, for spanish class. it's a work of art and genius, and it must be watched all the way through without stopping. the characters are excellently portrayed, and it combines love, feminism, drama, sensuality, lust, hope, passion, and humour, topped with cultural tradition and folklore. i don't know which one is better, the book or the movie. all of the 5 senses are provoked on a deep and perhaps even primal level, especially taste and smell, feverishly yearning for a sum greater than their overall parts (gestalt) - which brings up the sixth sense, intuition.
Rating:
Summary: Innovative and magical novel - a fantastic read!
Review: Few times does an author create something completely unique; Laura Esquivel has accomplished just that. Her themes of passion, familial insubordination, dictatorial governance, and romance are not new to literature. But communicating those themes through family life on the ranch of northern Mexico using magical realism and monthly recipes as metaphors is truly pioneering.
Tita is a suppressed daughter of Mama Elena, head of a Mexican ranch at the time of the Mexican Revolution. Tita was denied the consent of her mother to marry her true love, Pedro, who decided to wed Tita's older sister to be close to Tita. It is a recipe for disaster. What ensues is how Tita progresses and finds happiness under her mother's masterdom.
Food becomes the central metaphor in Like Water for Chocolate, as a life sustainer and a passion stimulant. Tita expresses herself through the food she prepares, obtaining a degree of creativity and professionalism that is obtained only through generations of tradition; she becomes the family nurturer, feeding babies, the sickly and the healthy. Food is the way that this matriarchal Mexican ranch family sustains their culture and tradition.
The political allegory is also significant, mapping what the key personalities are under a stifling dictatorship. Mama Elena maintains her power with the force of her own personality: personalismo. When that doesn't work, she cites tradition and "respectability." The third line of power is fear and castigation. Past political dictators have used all of these leadership tactics to maintain their regency. All of the characters have interesting allegorical places: Rosaura the ideological conformist, is a weak personality who carries on the traditions set by her mother without realizing why she is doing them. Gertrudis plays the rebel and Pedro the selfish conformist. Pedro abides by his mother-in-law's rules but tries to maximize his own happiness without contributing to the happiness of others. Marrying the sister of the woman he loves is a solution of someone who cannot think outside the box. He only marries Rosaura because Mama Elena suggests it-the marriage is within the rules. If he were a true free-thinker, he would run away and liberate Tita at the beginning.
By setting the novel against the Mexican Revolution, Esquivel shows how a family and a country can change its dogmatic and unproductive traditions. Just as the country overthrows its leadership, the De La Garza family overthrows Mama Elena and changes how it functions. The daughters of the De La Garza revolution decide just how they want to live after Mama Elena is gone.
The magical realism in Like Water for Chocolate makes the novel fun to read. From seeing ghosts to Gertrudis bursting the shower into flames, the novel becomes more of a tall-tale than a historical novel. These magical phenomena accentuate the humanity of the characters-using the magical elements to put the characters in positions where their true emotions can be seen. Overall, magical realism is an excellent technique in a well-written book.
Rating:
Summary: Great novel!
Review: Having seen the movie first, I decided to read the book: "Like Water For Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel. This fictional story based in Mexico tells of a young woman whom is destined by tradition to care for her mother in old age and be refused marriage. As luck would have it, she is in love with a man, who loves her as well. To be close to her, he agrees to marry her sister. The main character of the story puts her passion and sorrow into her cooking. Whenever she created a meal, the consumers of her dishes would display the emotions she had during the cooking process, whether it be sexual desire or extreme sorrow. This book is also broken up into months, offering a recipe each month, such as Quail in Rose Petal Sauce, Ox-Tail Soup, Wedding Cake and even how to make your own matches! If you enjoy love stories and Mexican food, this book may be an interesting read for you!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful in Both Languages
Review: I loved this book so much that I read it twice in English and once in Spanish. It's equally beautiful and poetic in both languages. Like Water for Chocolate is the story of a woman named Tita who is denied the pleasure of marrying the man she loves because of a family tradition that says the youngest daughter must dedicate her life to caring for her mother. Tita's mother is so cruel that she not only forbids Tita from marrying her lover, but also convinces him to marry Tita's older sister. He agrees because he knows it is the only way he can be close to Tita. Throughout the book, Tita pours her various emotions into her cooking, which has powerful and mysterious effects on those who eat it. Rather than making the story seem unreal, these magical events make the emotions of the novel more powerful and real to the reader. This novel is far more than a love story. It is a picture of an entire Mexican family, and how each individual is affected by Mama Elena's cruelty and the affair between Tita and Pedro. In the end, even Mama Elena becomes human when the reason for her cruelty is revealed.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE by Laura Esquivel (Translated by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen
February 5, 2005
A book that has become a classic, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE by Laura Esquivel is the star-crossed romance between Tita and Pedro. They are torn apart due to a "tradition" held in Tita's family that the youngest daughter is destined to live out her life taking care of her mother. Tita and Pedro have already declared their love for each other, but Mama Elena has other plans. Instead, Pedro marries an older sister, Rosaura, who he does not love at all, but he feels this is the closest he will ever get to his beloved Tita.
Each chapter begins with a Mexican recipe, and the chapters themselves are written as if for a cookbook, except in-between the instructions on how to make "mole", or how to cook Quail in Rose Petal sauce, Tita's story is told, narrated by an unnamed grandniece. It is the sad, yet sometimes humorous story of Tita's life, and how she is frustrated living as the youngest daughter in the house of De La Garza. Tita's father has been long deceased, and Mama Elena is the head of the household. She rules with a heavy hand and all live in fear of her. Tita, however, is the rebellious child, and is often beaten and punished for the simplest of things. Her biggest punishment is when Mama Elena declares that Tita will not be allowed to marry her love, Pedro, and instead Tita watches her sister take her place.
Her emotions are somehow transmitted to her cooking. By this time of her life, Tita is relegated to head cook, and she is good at it. But the pain and unhappiness she feels is now tasted in her cooking. At her sister's wedding, the guests become sick because of how Tita feels as she cooks the banquet feast. This is but one example where Tita's cooking seems to become more than just a meal, sending her own emotions into the food that she is cooking. I loved this element of magical realism, and I'm finding that the more I read books by Hispanic authors, the more sure I will be that I will encounter it.
As many books written by Latin American authors, LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE spans many years, and although it is quite a short book, it does tell the story of two lives that are forever linked through love. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I hear it is just as good as the book. LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE is highly recommended by the Ratmammy.
Rating:
Summary: Got it for my mom
Review: My mother loves this book. It tells the story of a family and their recipes. A good love story and a lot of drama.
Rating:
Summary: water for chocolate
Review: The book, Like Water for Chocolate, was a very interesting book. Sometimes it was a little boring but most of the time it was suspenseful. The part that was the most exiting for me was when Tina and her sister were having an argument in the kitchen. Another part that I liked was when Tina told John that she was cheating on him. I recommend this book because it keeps you guessing a lot and you will be on the edge of your seat till the end of the book. You should really go out and get this book.
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