Laura Esquivel

Read Around the World. Mexico

This is an award-winning debut novel set in Piedras Negras, near the Texas-Mexico border, during the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s, by Mexican teacher-come-author Laura Esquivel. The book is divided into 12 monthly installments or chapters each featuring its own recipe.

The story centres around the de la Garza family of women. Tita is madly in love with her sweetheart Pedro but their marriage is forbidden by her mother as tradition dictates that as the youngest daughter she stay home and care for her mother. Pedro marries her sister Rosaura instead, to be near to Tita, and sets into play a series of love triangles, rivalry, sexual tension and drama. Tita throws her heartbreak and frustration into cooking, her sensual dishes taking on magical properties. Her sister Gertrudis makes a mad dash for freedom and shapes her own destiny becoming a kickass woman. The kind and caring Dr John Brown enters the story and offers Tita a chance to escape the oppression of Mamá Elena and the awkward situation she is trapped in. Tita finds herself torn between a long-standing passion and the chance for a more respectful, selfless form of love.

I found this an enjoyable easy read. The culinary descriptions and magical realism woven in made it vivid and colourful. I found Pedro a very shallow and weak hero and was disappointed in the ending. There were also some issues around consent that were glossed over and portrayed in a positive light. Despite this it was an entertaining read.… (mer)

I know this book is hugely popular, but it just didn't excite me. I loved the idea that each chapter is governed by the cooking and realisation of a particular dish. The plot line was promising- a young woman, condemned not to marry because she must look after her mother for life, falls in love with the man who marries her sister so he can keep close to the woman he really loves....

In the end, it depended a great deal on magic realism. I don't do magic realism. Not at all. I couldn't wait to finish this book.… (mer)

Kurze Inhaltsangabe
Mexiko zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Als jüngste von drei Töchtern darf Tita nicht heiraten, sondern muss bis zu deren Tod ihre Mutter versorgen. Pedro, ihre grosse Liebe, heiratet die ältere Schwester, um wenigstens in ihrer Nähe zu bleiben. Ihren Gefühlen kann sie allein in der Küche Ausdruck geben: die Gäste erleben beim Essen nach, was Tita beim Kochen empfunden hat – mit zum Teil grotesken Folgen. Konsequenterweise wird jede der zwölf Episoden von einem Kochrezept eingeleitet.… (mer)