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Laura Esquivel

Author of Like Water for Chocolate

42+ Works 14,313 Members 307 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) 11,731 copies
The Law of Love (1995) 907 copies
Malinche (2006) 680 copies
Swift as Desire (2001) 526 copies
Pierced by the Sun (2014) 135 copies
Mi negro pasado (2017) 29 copies
The Diary of Tita (2018) 25 copies
Als je mijn hart beroert (1991) 10 copies
La Estrellita Marinera (1999) 7 copies

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Members

Reviews

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)
 
Flagged
Articul8Madness | 251 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 | 251 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 | 251 other reviews | Oct 14, 2023 |
bit surreal love story, based around a mexican family and expresions of feelings through food
 
Flagged
nordie | 251 other reviews | Oct 14, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

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John Cleese Contributor
Luigi Pirandello Contributor
Piet Vroon Contributor
Giny Klatser Translator
Axel Madsen Contributor
Jenny Diski Contributor
Florinda Donner Contributor
Peter van Straaten Contributor
A.S. Byatt Contributor
Freek de Jonge Contributor
Benoîte Groult Contributor
Françoise Giroud Contributor
Marguerite Duras Contributor

Statistics

Works
42
Also by
2
Members
14,313
Popularity
#1,608
Rating
3.8
Reviews
307
ISBNs
370
Languages
25
Favorited
15

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