No comments about Like Water for Chocolate.

No comments about ** RARE, ABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK: Like Water For Chocolate, By Laura Esquivel, Performed By Yareli Arizmendi (4 Cassettes).

No comments about Swift As Desire A Novel - Unabridged.

No comments about Like Water for Chocolate.

5 comments about Como agua para chocolate (Alfaguara Audio).

1. Imaginatively told, romantic and sensual - this is a Latin-style fairy tale for adults only. Tita, our heroine, has a life of work & misery, caused by her mother who is cruel beyond reason to her and has brainwashed her since birth into believing that the youngest daughter must remain a spinster and take care of her mother for ever. Fortunately Tita is blessed with magical cooking skills that allow her to attract lovers and cast many types of spells over the people that consume her dishes, amazing events occur all around her. Tita is not the only talented member of the family either, her sisters are notable personalities as well.

   I recommend this as a light & funny escape from reality.




2. Esta obra es preciosa... Tiene una historia tan tierna, y romantica a la vez, que te cautiva desde el primer momento que empiezas a leerlo. Es facil de leer, interesante, y entretenido. Se lo recomiendo a todo aquel que quiera disfrutar de una historia de amor, llena de sorpresas y pasion...



3. besides the excellent recipes wholly printed in the book version, here is my review of the movie, which is not as detailed nor able to be prolonged but is true to the book (unlike other movie versions of books in which some stuff is changed):

   after you watch this movie, you will either want to eat, cook (preferably one of the mentioned recipes), make love or all three! i saw the version dubbed in spanish, and also read 3 selected chapters from the book, for spanish class. it's a work of art and genius, and it must be watched all the way through without stopping. the characters are excellently portrayed, and it combines love, feminism, drama, sensuality, lust, hope, passion, and humour, topped with cultural tradition and folklore. i don't know which one is better, the book or the movie. all of the 5 senses are provoked on a deep and perhaps even primal level, especially taste and smell, feverishly yearning for a sum greater than their overall parts (gestalt) - which brings up the sixth sense, intuition.




4. A look at the inner workings of a Mexican family through recipes, magic and sex. A charming read. Highly recommended.



5. I bought this book for my goddaughter who is a senior in high school and taking Spanish 4. But I have a copy myself and it is the best story I have ever read. The story has influenced my life, which is unusual for a novel. It is heart-warming, romantic, and inspiring for a decent gourmet chef like me. You'll love this story.

5 comments about Swift as Desire: A Novel.

1. I picked this book up because I thoroughly enjoyed Like Water for Chocolate (and the movie) ~~ and while it doesn't compete with her famous novel, this book is a very sweet story.

   A man has a gift to make everyone around him happy ~~ he is able to discern their discontent and find a way to make them feel better. Only one person who he cannot make happy and that is his wife. Lucha is a Mexican girl who has never known want or hunger. Jubilio tries everything in his power to make her happy and succeeded for many years till a tragedy drove them apart.

   The story is told from their daughter's point of view ~~ how a man driven to please his woman loses his woman after all ~~ and the secret yearnings of all of our hearts. This is an exquistely-written novel on the heart and love between a man and a woman.

   And this is also a reflection on a daughter's love for her father ~~ this is a must-read for every daddy's girl. Sometimes you don't realize how blessed you are till something happens. And sometimes it is too late. This is a poignant story and a reminder that life is ever-fleeting.

   Even though it's not written in the same calibar as Like Water for Chocolate, it is still a lovely tome to add to your library or reading list. Sometimes one needs a small novel to remind us of the important things in life.

   10-31-03




2. Laura Esquivel's novel Swift as Desire is enjoyable but not great. The book has lots of love and wimsy but lacks strong characters and plot. The book is completely focused on the love story between Jubilo and Lucha. The story is told from the eyes of Jubilo's daughter LLuvia. She is by the side of her once great father who is now blind and sick with parkensens. She tells the story from a very idealistic point of view. She rarely critises anything her father did. The character of Lluvia is very one-sided, she doesnt evolve or change at all throughout the book. She tells of her fathers birth, how he came out laughing, and was born with the gift of bringing people together and constantly connecting them. He helps relate his myan grandma and spanish mother by speaking to both effectively. This part is very unbelieveable and uses the overdone idea of the mixing of these two cultures too much. The childhood and teen years of jubilo are very typical but when he faces troubles with the love of his life, Lucha, later in their marriage, his multidemensional personality comes to light. However, after he becomes a drunk, he is instantly reinstated in the family. He and his wife remain living together simply for the sake of their daughter(All of a sudden they are amazing parents).
   Esquivel's use of mexican culture and history are sparse and random. She does do a good job of glorifying the culture that she loves and using slight magical realism without making the whole book an alternate reality.
   OVerall, the book was a fast and easy read. It showed insight into the author's life but not much else. I enjoyed it as a fun read with interesting and believable characters but it was definitely missing the elements to a great literary piece



3. Swift As Desire is the story of an intense love relationship between Don Jubilo and Lucha. Jubilo is born with a very special talent in which he is able to hear what people are thinking and feeling. This special talent bases the entire story. Jubilo finds the woman of his dreams, Lucha, when he is 15 and she is 13. They fall in love immediately and eventually marry. They suffer through many hardships mainly because Lucha cannot live with their lack of money since she is so used to living amongst wealth. Jubilo feels that money is never at all important in finding happiness. Jubilo uses his special talent to become a telegraph operator. While trying to help a friend out, Jubilo cheated someone out by using his talent in a bet. He won, and since he used his talent in a bad way, he lost his special ways. This is hard for him, but he makes it through. He and his wife are very much in love and nothing else matters when they are with eachother, which is what makes their relationship so strong.
   Lucha's boss begins to put a burden in their relationship. Jubilo feels very uncomfortable with how he treats Lucha and how he admires her. Eventually Don Pedro (Lucha's Boss) causes some problems.
   Throughout the novel, Laura Esquivel switches back and forth between Jubilo's daughter's perspective in the present and back to Jubilo's life in the past. The entire time, the author leaves readers wondering what tragic event happened in Jubilo and Lucha's life that caused them to split up in the future.
   Towards the beginnning of this book, I wasn't very interested because all Laura Esquivel talked about was the lovey relationship between Jubilo and Lucha. In the middle I really started to like the book. I loved how there was a huge mystery about what tragic event changed everything in their lives. Laura Esquivel keeps the writing very interesting and keeps readers on the edges of their seats, wanting to read more.
   This novel is very similar to Like Water For Chocolate because both stories contain aspects of magical realism. They have a good amount of history on Mexican culture which I thought was very interesting.
   Also, in Swift As Desire, the author shows her liking of philosophy and nature through Don Jubilo's character. He is very philosophical and every chapter starts out with how he currently feels and what nature aspects are forming his feelings.
   Swift As Desire is an excellent book that everyone should read. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would rate in an 8.



4. This review refers to the Unabridged audio cassette edition of "Swift As Desire" by Laura Esquivel...
   
   So... after reading "Like Water For Chocolate", also by Ms. Esquivel, and reading some of the other reviews here, I didn't figure that this was going to be anywhere near as great as LWFC had been. But the truth is, I loved this charming,sentimental,sometimes witty, sometimes sad, emotional story. I could not wait to get to it every day. If my phone or doorbell rang, I paused it right where it was, so as not to miss a second of the wonderful reading given by Ellizabeth Pena.I wanted more when it ended and left me with a lump in my throat
   
   Jubilo, was a special human being. He had a way with words. He worked as an all important telegraph operator, long before E-mail was available. He kept people, loved ones, and businesses abreast of all situations. He seemed to have a magical way of being in tuned with the earth's messages even apart from the telegraph. He was a lover of life. Of the gifts nature provided, and the gifts he was able to give back to his wife, his family and the world.It is his story from boyhood to his dieing day, that Ms. Esquivel delights us with. How this very special man, now blind, made communication an art,hearing things as imperceptible as the movement of a grain of sand,how he loved so deeply, and how he played the hand life dealt him, whether it be great triumphs, or huge losses.
   
   Ms Esquivel gives us magical moments with real characters, and a good taste of Mexican and Mayan traditons and heritage.The story of family,the feeling of "Not knowing what you really have, until it is gone", will take you by surprise, and linger deliciously. Elizabeth Pena's("Lone Star") reading is not only delightfully enthusiastic, but lends a great deal of authenticity to the read. She manages to find the distinguishable traits in each, to bring them to life. To feel their joys and pain.
   
   This edition is an unabridged reading. It has some very descriptive scenes of love making, so it is probably not one you will want to play on your stereo with children about. There are 4 two-sided cassettes, with a total running time of about 6 hours.A tray with a slot for each tape, keeps them in order(may be helpful to vision impaired readers). The sound quality is very good. Sometimes, the reviews for all editions of a book are lumped together, so if it is this audio edition that you are interested in the ISBN is 0375419780. Below the picture of the couple kissing on the cover art, there is a green band that says..Read By Elizabeth Pena - Unabridged.
   
   It is a story dedicated to the Author's own father, and after the read, you may feel the need to call your's or at least leave you with thoughts of the special gifts he gave to you.
   Enjoy....Laurie



5. 
   Having reread `Like Water for Chocolate' after approximately 10 years, I got curious as to what else Laura Esquivel had written and came up with this. WOW!
   This is very different to `Like Water for Chocolate', and although this story is much simpler (essentially a love story about the lives of an ordinary couple) it is just as powerful and touching - if not more so.
   Definitely recommended.

5 comments about The Law of Love.

1. Reading all of these reviews many people compare this book to her first one. Had this been a sequel for the her first novel, then go ahead and compare it. But this is an entirely different book with different characters. Many authors go through different stages in their lifes and many times it shows through in their writing. I enjoyed this book because I had no high expectations for it. I was dissapointed with the CD because I felt that it didn't fit the book as well as it could have. I did enjoy the past lives, but I did also feel that 'magical' things appeard to help the characters out of a tight spot. (Which actually, helps the story move along quite rapidly if you just accept things as they are and not question them.) Enjoyed the book, didn't enjoy the CD so much, loved the pictures and the general idea behind it. Good bathroom reading.



2. Since you read the title, you must guess it is not a realistic book (Can anybody really mention A Law of Love??) Yet, it is really entertaining. What the author mentions in her story is the idea that people reincarnate several times until they settle any conflicts existing in previous lives, and to do so, it is necessary that in the following lives the people who you had these conflicts with, reincarnate close to you. I think this was really a fun book not only for the plot itself that is quite creative, but also because it as a multimedia book. It includes an audio CD and lively illustrations to make you feel as part of the book. For instance, if the person in the book is listening to some music that makes her dream of something, you can also listen to that same music with the aid of the CD while you see the illustrations and share her dreams. Isn't this innovative enough to be worthwhile reading it?



3. Fortunately I have not read Like Water For Chocolate, and so I didn't have particularly high expectations concerning the quality of prose in this book, and reading the jacket prepared me for a rather sappy story. Nevertheless, this was both the most poorly written and poorly conceived book I've read in a long time (if ever!). The writing style reminded me of that of an overstimulated teenager, and the characters were all but empty of substance. What I found most appalling, however, were the ridiculous new-age pseudophilosophies, and the horrendous misinterpretations of karma and reincarnation. Honestly, the whole thing was so bad it was just embarrassing. So glad it was a loaner, not a purchase!



4. After all the hype regarding Like Water for Chocolate, and in view of my deep interest in reincarnation in fiction, I had greatly anticipated this book. It had a compelling start, in detailing the karmic events set into motion with Rodrigo and Citlala, but the switch to the futuristic setting, with all its fantastical and foreign new technologies and philosophies, was too much far, far too soon.
   
   Problems I identified were: poor, scanty characterization; almost total lack of blocking (description of setting); and comprehensive, almost omnipresent 'telling' instead of 'showing'. We are never allowed to draw our own conclusions about the characters from their actions and words-- Esquivel informs us, either through her narration or that of a guardian or demon, exactly what we are to think of everyone. And both the preachiness and massive breadth of the metaphysical 'stuff' was intrusive and annoying, giving the impression she's telling us what to believe, as well.
   
   The ending is, as with so many novels nowadays, rushed and insufficient, a mere wrap-up chapter telling us what happened to all the main characters after the fact, the lazy man's (woman's?) way of getting the damned thing over with. We aren't shown how any of these things occurred, though it would have been both interesting and satisfying to see how these people came to their rewards or punishments.
   
   And worst of all is the pat and ludicrous resolution of the distance between Azucena and Rodrigo. After their initial meeting at the start of the book, they are separated, and the story basically details (with many flourishes) Azucena's travails in finding him again. But when they do find each other, he doesn't remember her any more, and only has eyes for the reincarnation of Citlala, of whom his violation in a prior life was so lovingly recounted in the first chapter.
   
   Azucena, then, finds love with Teo, and enthusiastically copulates with him at every opportunity. This is explained away with a few convenient sentences by Esquivel, who gives Azucena's reunion with Rodrigo the same treatment in her rushed ending. "Oh, Rodrigo remembers Azucena and leaves Citlala and now only has eyes for his soul mate." Just that easy, was it?
   
   I guess a scene of such power and emotion wasn't important enough for her to render for her readers, but I was left wondering if he felt shame for forgetting Azucena was his soul mate and taking up with Citlala, if Azucena harbored resentment for it. Of course, knowing how Esquivel prefers to tell us what to think, she'd have just informed us with a sole paragraph how it all went down, so I suppose that we're not missing anything by her leaving it out.
   
   Also ludicrous is how easily Azucena forgives Isabel's transgressions against her and the others-- again solved with a convenient telling instead of showing. Esquivel proves how poor her grasp of human nature, and how inadequate she is at rendering it in words for her readers, if she thinks that being murdered and abandoned repeatedly by the same person over multiple lifeties can be erased with a sentence or two.
   
   The multimedia aspect of the book feels gimmicky. The music is redundant in style and theme, and the graphic novel parts feel more like Esquivel couldn't be arsed to describe the scene herself, so got someone else to draw it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, she saved herself about 25,000 of them with the artwork. Convenient for her, but ultimately dissatisfying for us.
   
   In general, this book felt like a wacky sci-fi concept that Esquivel wanted "out there" but didn't feel like bothering to put any effort into. Her heavy-handed treatment of both the story and philosophical issues too many 'WTF' moments, where we have to stop and thing hard about what in the world is happening, gives her an overlooming presence that prevents the reader from becoming absorbed in the book; we're too aware it's written, rather than unfolding before us.



5. I bought it in its spanish version. I loved the way that Laura Esquivel wrote "Like Water for Chocolate" all this funny situations and romantic inspirations not to mention the recipes. So, I decided to look a work besides that one. I have the theory that, if you get in love with a book, is pretty uncommon to find a writer that could make a new book surpass its predecessor. This is one of this cases. I got it and started to read, it just got me involved in all this reincarnation theme and how much does it cost find love. Is a book you'r definitvely will get involved and enjoy.

5 comments about Like Water for Chocolate.

1. Laura Esquivel's "Like Water for Chocolate" is a dreamy, gauzy tale, a celebration of life that ends in ecstatic death. The prose is matter-of-fact and often instructive, as when Esquivel writes directions for cooking traditional dishes or making home remedies at a Mexican ranch over 100 years ago. This is interspersed with slang expressions that jar, seeming too contemporary for the setting.
   
   At one level, the book seems almost a parody of itself and the reader could laugh out loud at the transposition of inexplicable, allegorical happenings and the prosaic description of cooking and ordinary days.
   
   One another level, the reader is swept away by dream-like images, a "wishing makes it so" reality in which feeling, and thinking, can affect people and events. (Note: Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief" must be heavily applied!)
   
   The lead character, Tita, is brought vividly to life; the reader knows her in full. The other characters are much more sketchily depicted, especially Tita's love, Pedro, who remains a cipher. Pedro is magnetically drawn to Tita by sexual desire; Esquivel doesn't give the reader any other basis for their relationship.
   
   In the end, sex and death bind Tita and Pedro together in erotic euphoria. Romantic readers will relish this book. Others may find it strange and at times, even unintentionally funny.



2. Chocolate in the tummy, title or story improves the experience.
   This book is on my stack of all time favorites-some of the dramatic images will amuse you and stay with you-for years.



3. Get ready to be engulfed in the mouth-watering aroma of delicious Mexican dishes and a tale of romance, mystique, and an all-consuming passion. Laura Esquivel's beautiful novel, Like Water for Chocolate, is a combination of simple prose and the charm of magic realism that makes it a delightful and fascinating read.
   The novel encompasses the life of Tita de la Garza, the third daughter of Elena, from her unusual birth to the spectacular event of her death. Intertwining with Tita's story are monthly recipes that are served during the course of her life and have had significant impacts on Tita and the people around her. The dominance of food throughout the novel is further embellished by Esquivel's use of magical realism. Taking a role itself, the appearance of food or the ingredients that are used to prepare food instigate a myriad of events in the story. Tita's birth is explained as being triggered by her cries within Elena's womb due to chopped onion, and the dishes that Tita prepares carry a magical power that could induce tears or passion once consumed, such as the "Chabela Wedding Cake" and "Quail in Rose Petal Sauce."
   Thwarted of the chance to marry her only love, Pedro Muzquiz, Tita transfers her emotions into food and allows her cooking to express the concealed feelings she has for him. Just as strong as her passion is for food, Tita's and Pedro's ardor for each other surpasses all boundaries of time and familial obligations. The fierce passion of their love is so powerful that it magically ignites them at the final climactic moment of their joining, causing a great fire and ultimately concluding Tita's life.
   Overall, Like Water for Chocolate is a sumptuous and sensual tale that will evoke a sense of longing in the reader's heart and appetite.



4. If you enjoyed Allende's The House of the Spirits, then this is the right book for you! Much like Allende's novel, Like Water for Chocolate combines the ordinary and the supernatural in the portrayal of two young, Latino lovers living in the midst of civil war. However, Esquivel's work remains unique though her use of food in not only emphasizing her pride in the Mexican culture, but also in expressing the strong conflicting emotions that are deep within the hearts of the characters. Through the use of magical realism and the motif of food, Esquivel depicts a love story that explores the classic theme of what happens to a dream deterred.
   Every chapter of the novel begins with a recipe, which serves to accentuate how the life of a traditional Mexican family is centered on the kitchen. Thus it is no surprise that the main character is no other than the youngest daughter and head chef, Tita, who is characterized as a talented young girl whose spirit is constantly broken by her mother's incessant upbraiding. Tita's lifelong pain is symbolized through the motif of onions, which appear throughout the novel during times of deep sorrow and heavy weeping. Esquivel's use of food as a motif is further evidenced by Tita's culinary masterpieces--such as the rose dish that causes its consumers to be afflicted with erotic obsession. Overall, Esquivel's originality is derived from her ability to mix the elements of cooking, erotica, and the magical realism in creating a novel that demonstrates the consequences of emotional repression. I personally recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a love story chock-full of Hispanic culture, garnished with elements of the supernatural.



5. A delightful little book, Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate is almost a modern-day fairy tale. Told in monthly installments, the novel is simultaneously story and cookbook, filled with both recipes and home remedies and as well as the story of Tita, our heroine, who was born, raised and taught in the kitchen, and who has the amazing ability to cook her emotions into her marvelous recipes. Tita's story is one of longing, love and the need to be her own person; to escape the tyrannical presence of her mother and create her own life with the man she loves. It's a relatively fast read, but enjoyable all the same.