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Laura Esquivel

Author of Like Water for Chocolate

46+ Works 14,501 Members 310 Reviews 15 Favorited

About the Author

She is the award-winning author of Like Water For Chocolate. She lives in Mexico City. (Publisher Provided) Laura Esquivel was born in Mexico City, Mexico on September 30, 1950. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a kindergarten teacher and as a writer for children's television show more programs during the 1970s and 1980s. Her first novel, Como Agua para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate), was published in 1989 in Spanish and in 1992 in English. It was made into a movie, also written by Esquivel, in 1993. The movie won the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures award. Her other novels include The Law of Love, Swift as Desire, Between the Fires, and Malinche. She has also published the children's story Estrellita Marinera, an essay entitled The Book of Emotions, and a philosophical treatise called Intimate Suculencias Kitchen. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara

Series

Works by Laura Esquivel

Like Water for Chocolate (1992) 11,858 copies
The Law of Love (1995) 920 copies
Malinche (2006) 690 copies
Swift as Desire (2001) 531 copies
Pierced by the Sun (2014) 138 copies
Mi negro pasado (2017) 27 copies
The Diary of Tita (2018) 26 copies
Als je mijn hart beroert (1991) 10 copies
La Estrellita Marinera (1999) 7 copies
Een zomer vol liefde (2001) 7 copies
Ley del amor, La (2015) 2 copies
The Colors of My Past (2020) 2 copies
Verleiding 2 copies
Leesgids Mexico (2002) 2 copies
Felicidade 1 copy
Het beste uit Rainbow : een Bijenkorf selectie (1994) — Contributor — 1 copy
Malinche Malarka slow (2013) 1 copy
Kr̃lek het som chili (1993) 1 copy

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Members

Reviews

Hyperbole and a sort of spiritualism that is not part of our culture. Are these real recipes?
 
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LDVoorberg | 253 other reviews | Dec 24, 2023 |
Like water For Chocolate is a classic! Many know it for the film - watch the film too as it is one of the best book to film adaptations ever done (and probably because the filmmaker was married to the author at the time).

Here we're introduced to the De La Cruz family consisting of Mama Elena and her three daughters Rosara, Gertrudis, and Tita, head cook Nacha, and later on, house maid Chencha.

Tita at a young age attracts the attention of Pedro, who is madly in love with her and wants to marry her. As Tita is the last child born of Mama Elena since her father died after hearing unsettling news about his family she is forced to carry the curse of her mother's family - to live as her mother's caretaker until she dies and never marry. Mama Elena orchestrates Pedro marrying Rosara, whom he claims is to be near her. This spawns a lifetime of sneaking and freaking for them trying to be together intertwined with the lives of the sisters. Tita eventually breaks free of Mama Elena's grip and falls for another man who intends to marry her. After that, Tita's on the warpath to protect her niece Esparanza, whom her sister has vowed to bestow the same family curse upon her as she can't have any more kids.

The story is beautifully crafted under Tita's role as head ranch cook, a job she inherited the day of her sister's marriage. The way the recipes are introduced and the circumstances around each dish is a stroke of genius.

Read this one, you won't be bored.
… (more)
 
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Articul8Madness | 253 other reviews | Nov 6, 2023 |
When I read this as a teenager I was bewitched. But reading it now almost 25 years later I have a very different opinion. I loved the magical realism but not the main love story or the two lovers. Rosaura's life I found the saddest of all. But Gertrudis' adventures would make a more compelling book.
 
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Stefuto | 253 other reviews | Oct 31, 2023 |
bit surreal love story, based around a mexican family and expresions of feelings through food
 
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nordie | 253 other reviews | Oct 14, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
46
Also by
2
Members
14,501
Popularity
#1,582
Rating
3.8
Reviews
310
ISBNs
372
Languages
25
Favorited
15

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