Like Water For Chocolate book review - Laarnie Casil

“Like Water for Chocolate” is Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel’s first novel and was published in 1989. This novel serves as the start of Esquivel’s magical realism genre. This book has been made into a film, translated into 23 languages and was the best-selling book in Mexico for three years.

The story centers on Tita, whose family lives in a ranch near the US-Mexico border. Her family is comprised of Mama Elena, her iron-fisted mother, and Gertudis and Rosaura, her older sisters. Pedro, Tita’s admirer tries to ask to marry her, but Mama Elena refuses because of the family tradition that the youngest daughter must never marry to take care of the mother until she dies. Pedro marries Rosaura instead. Even though he insisted that he married her just to get closer to Tita, she was still heartbroken. Tita expresses her sorrow through her cooking. Unconsciously, Pedro is lured with the power of Tita’s creations. To prevent Pedro and Tita from being together, Mama Elena forces that Pedro and Rosaura go to San Antonio. The two lose their son, Roberto. Later , Rosauro is made sterile after the birth of their daughter, Esperanza.

Tita, having learned about the death of her beloved nephew, blames her mother who then beat her with a wooden spoon. Tita then locks herself in and refuses to come out until Dr John Brown talks her into coming out. Mama Elena thinks that Tita a lunatic and says that the ranch didn’t need someone like her and wants her to be put into a mental institution. Dr Brown takes her away, but not into an institution. He takes her into his home and takes care of her. Eventually, they get into a relationship even though Tita still has feelings for Pedro.

Without Mama Elena to stop them, Pedro and Tita can freely love each other. For the first time, they finally make love. It was so passionate that Pedro dies while making love with Tita. Upset by the sudden death of her love, Tita lights and lights matches. This causes a fire in the ranch and the two are burnt to ashes. Nothing remained except for Tita’s cookbook. Tita’s niece, Esperanza later marries Alex, Dr Brown’s son in a previous marriage.

The story’s setting was chosen perfectly. The kitchen is considered the very heart and soul of a Mexican household. The title really means the boiling point or explosion of emotion…an explosion of feelings that the two separated lovers released. It exploded like the steam coming out of a pot of boiling water. Had it not been forced inside, it would not have caused much damage and the two would still have been alive.

It was a very touching story, but I did not like the ending at all. It would have been better if the two had just run away with each other. But, Tita only became rebellious later on the story. But, the story opens the reader’s eyes on a very real social problem. Even in today’s modern society, even without old family traditions, parents still try to control their children’s relationships and want to make decisions for them. I think that people should read this novel.