Book- Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate is a little hard to describe. To say it a novel seriously undermines its originality, and mythic qualities. It is fable-like in many senses too.

Each chapter is a month, and features one recipe. The main character is Tita, the narrator's great aunt, and tells the story of her life, loves and heartbreak. It also tells the story of the wonderful food she cooked.

The story of Tita---who is told by her mythically strong mother, Mama Elena, that she can never marry because as youngest, she must stay at home and take care of her mother...forever--- is organized by food. The month that begins the novel is December, so the recipe for Christmas buns are the first to be told. And the events seem to follow the food, rather than the other way around.

Fable like its use of odd events to show a moral, the novel shows Tita tears falling into the icing of a wedding cake made for her sister, who was marrying the man Tita loves. The tears carry so much of her passion, as everyone eats the cake, they get horny as hell, and must leave to make passionate love. The book also mixes the erotic with food, meals bring out the sexual, and the making of the food brings out the sensual.

Tita's story is odd, but wholly enjoyable. It has an original voice, and is reminiscent of an older literature, more seeming an oral tale than a written one, a story passed down through generations. An excellent book, I would recommend it easily.