كالماء للشكولاتة لذيذة بقدر ما فيها من وصفات وتحضيرات مطبخية وروائح الطعام ، استندت على الخيال والعاطفة المتطرفة التي لا تعرف قيودا كقيود العائلة أو الدين أو التقاليد .. فكسرت كل الأعراف التي تقف في وجه حب عاصف .. عندما تقرأ هذا النص تعرف إنك تقف أمام روائية قادرة على شد انتباهك بطريقتها الغرائبية الشيقة التي ربطت ما بين المطبخ والطعام وبين الحب والخيال ، الضوء والدفء والعاطفة .. هذه الفنتازيا السحرية لقصة امرأة لم تكن تملك سوى مهارتها في المطبخ لتناضل بها ولتعالج بها ولتحب بها إنها وصفة غريبة ولكنها متدفقة وعالية المستوى !الماء .. القوة ، النقاء ، الشفافية ، يختلط بالشوكولاتة ، الشكولاتة اللون الرائحة الطعم لذة الحياة ولذة الحب ، العاطفة التي حرمت منها تيتا بسبب سيطرة أمها التي تبدو كزوجة أب شريرة . تبدأ الرواية بتلك الأشغال الشاقة التي كانت تيتا تقوم بها دون كلل أو ملل من قبل أم لمتسلطة تشبه زوجة أب سندريلا ، تتمسك بالتقليد الذي يقضي بأن تكون الإبنة الأخيرة في رعاية أمها حتى وفاتها ، يبدو الأمر سيئا بما يكفي إلا إن الأمور تزداد سوءا عندما تلتقي تيتا بحبها الحقيقي ، تيتا الممنوعة من الحب والمنذورة لخدمة الأمالقصة مناسبة جدا لأجواء الواقعية السحرية المحيطة بها وظفت فيها الأساطير والأعراف وحكايات الجدات فابتدعت لاورا قصصها الخاصة فلاتملك إلا أن تبتسم لتلك التي ماتت بنفس الطريقة التي ماتت بها أول مرة ، الموت مرتين يا له من عذاب تلقته أوسادورا لتموت عقابا لها على خيانة شقيقتها ، إن الخيانة عند لاورا أمر غير مستساغ وغير مقبول في محيط العائلة لذلك ما فتأت إيلينا حتى بعد موتها تلعن تيتا التي ردت على الخيانة بخيانة ، وبالرغم من إن الروائية أكدت على قدسية العائلة في مشاهد مطبخية كثيرة لكنها أيضا ثارت على التقاليد التي تكبل المرأة لتختار شريك حياتها إن الرواية تدور حول فكرة التنفيس عن الرغبات والإنتصار لها بالدرجة الأولى لذلك ينتصر الحب في النهاية..في أدب الواقعية السحرية الموت أمر لا مناص منه إنه أمر يقارب السحر بغموضه وماهيته الغير معروفة ، في الموت هناك الكثير مما يمكن الخيال من الجنوح إليه ، كما هو المطبخ فللموت أسرار كما للمطبخ أسرار ، وهؤلاء اللاتي لا يدخلن المطبخ يفتقدن معرفة هذه الإسرار الصغيرة التي تجعل من المطبخ مكانا حميميا ممتلىء بالروائح والنكهات والكثير من المشاعر والعواطف والتقلبات كما يظهر هنا في هذه الرواية البديعة فالوصفات مرتبطة إرتباطا كليا بمشاعر وتقلبات عواطف تيتا ، فتيتا حين تحزن يحزن كل المدعوين وحين تفرح تسكب كل مشاعرها السعيدة في كعكة من الفرح فيبتهج الآخرين ...يبدو العمل في مشاهد كثيرة أمرا مستفزا ، ليست وصفات الطهي من بينها بلا شك وهي جزء كبير من القصة ، ولكن إذا رأينا هذا العمل من منظار ساخر فإن الفكرة تصبح أكثر قبولا ، كالشخصيات الجامحة ذات الإيقاع المجنون خيردوتس مثال على الرغبة في كل أشكالها الحرية ، بلا قيد ولا شرط ، الشقيقة التي ضربت عرض الحائط بكل القيم والأعراف لأجل رغباتها ، تيتا وعلاقتها ببنت أختها ، والرضاعة التي حدثت من ثدي لم يعرف الأمومة ليحضر ذلك الرابط الذي ربطها ببيدرو والذي ظل قائما مليئا بالحب ومترعا بالحليب بينما كان صدر أختها جافا ، الحمل الكاذب الذي توهمته تيتا من بيدرو والذي لعله كان يشير إلى علاقة الحب الغير مشروعة التي حدثت بينهما هناك رمزيات كثيرة في النص أجملها كان مشهد الاحتراق البديع في نهاية الرواية الغريب إنني لم انتبه أن هناك راويا قريبا من شخصيات الرواية في النص إلا في نهايته !الترجمة بارعة للغاية للدرجة التي تود أن تأكلها أكلا
Have you ever finished a book and thought "Man, this is going to be hard to review?" Because that's the first thing I thought when I finished this little book by Laura Esquivel. Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments With Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies is a book that really left me conflicted. There were things about it that I absolutely loved, and things about it that made me very angry. The only way I can think to write this review is to explain what I found good and bad, and let you all come to your own conclusions.First, let's start with the good things. I loved the way this book was written. Like Water for Chocolate reads like a folktale, and a fun one at that. Some people's reviews that I've read found the magical realism trite or annoying, but I found it really endearing. The book managed to be an easy, quick read without sacrificing quality. Now, I cannot review this book without talking about the recipes. The book is split up into monthly installments, and each month has a recipe that Tita makes that ties the story together. The recipe is given at the beginning of each monthly chapter, and the instructions for preparation are woven into the story. Now, I'm a huge fan of cooking, so I found this idea to be really great. Since so much of the story takes place around and hinges on food, putting the recipes in the book makes perfect sense. I loved the way that the preparation instructions were included in the action of the story. Some people seem to find it gimmicky, but I thought it was a fun little addition to a book already filled with the tastes and smells of good Mexican cooking.Now, for the things that troubled me. First of all, I have to admit that even though I'm a huge lover of all things fairy-tale and myth, I do not like the "love at first sight" narrative. It's not that I'm not a romantic, but I feel that real love is something that is built up from a knowledge of a person's character and personality, not something that magically happens when you see someone from across the room. As for Tita's beloved, Pedro, I honestly didn't like him. He spent the entire book being selfish, immature, and whiny. I have no idea what Tita saw in him. While this book started out with that "love at first sight" narrative, there is a point that it has the chance to go away from that narrative and treat love in a realistic and touching manner. Honestly, that was the ending I was hoping for, so I was pretty well disappointed with how the book actually ended. For me at least, the ending was the worst part of the book. I feel like it kept the book from really having any particular meaning or significance, and instead just avoided any difficulty and wrapped up as quickly and neatly as possible. It just wasn't satisfying.There were also plot elements that I found really disturbing. There are some *spoilers* in the following paragraph. At one point Pedro completely ignores all concepts of consent and just assumes that Tita wants to have sex with him, even though she has denied him repeatedly because he is married to her sister and she is promised to someone else. Does he care about this? No. Is this seen as a problem in the book? No, of course not. As soon as Pedro grabs her and pulls her into a room, Tita magically forgets all of her previous objections, and it's just seen as more proof that they need to be together. Honestly, I find that to be pretty wrong. If somebody who I had repeatedly told to leave me alone just assumed that I didn't really mean it and that I really wanted to have sex with him and decided to pull me into a dark room, I would kick him so hard he would never want to have sex again. It wouldn't matter how much I actually loved him, if he can't respect my decisions he is not worth my time. Combine that incident with the not-very-sympathetic treatment of a rape victim at another point, and you can imagine that I wasn't exactly happy with the way this book treated consent. *End spoilers here* Basically, this book had some incidents that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and made me wonder exactly what kind of love the author is trying to promote.Overall, the good writing and fun recipes in this book did not outweigh the problematic elements in the narrative. As much as I wanted to, I could not let myself simply enjoy this book, because problems with the plot and the ideas in the book kept jolting me out of the magical world of the narrative. This book was supposed to be a great love story, but I couldn't help feeling that Tita ended up with the wrong man. The ending of the book was completely disappointing, and only served to cement my growing discomfort. For those of you who don't mind the things that I mentioned, this book could be enjoyable. For those of you who want realistic love and respectful healthy relationships, I would suggest that you stay away from Like Water For Chocolate.Rating: not recommendedGood things: enjoyable writing, fun format, successful magical realismBad things: unrealistic love, unhealthy relationships, consent problems, unsatisfying ending For more reviews, visit my blog at http://readingwhilefemale.blogspot.com
What do You think about Like Water For Chocolate (1993)?
Okay, so maybe more of a 3 1/2 star. I have a love/hate relationship with magical realism and, if anything, part of my disappoint with the novel comes from the fact that there's not as much "magic" as I had hoped for (I prefer Isabel Allende's House of the Sprits by comparison). However, I still enjoyed the novel as it was unique in its structure, and the conduit for the magical aspects of the novel--food--was beautifully rendered in the recipes and descriptions of the connection between food and culture, as well as food and memory.Tita, the youngest daughter in her family, is doomed by tradition. She grows up knowing that she will never marry as it is her fate to take care of her tyrannical mother as she enters old age. Tita might have been able to resign herself to her destiny if it weren't for Pedro, the man with whom she falls passionately in love at first sight. Tita's mother, of course, forbids the marriage and instead does the unthinkable--offers Pedro her eldest daughter Rosaura's hand in marriage. Pedro, the effin' fool that he is (oh, that's my other complaint with the book; I did not cotton to Pedro, although, to be fair, he's not a very well-developed character and so his actions come across as moronic since his only driving impulse is to be with Tita), accepts because it is the only way he can be near Tita. Oh, yeah. You know that's a plan that's going to end in a fustercluck. Tita is both elated to know that Pedro is only marrying her sister out of love for Tita and depressed by the fact that their love is to go unconsummated as long as her mother's eagle eye ensures that the two are kept apart. Unable to express her innermost desires, they instead surface in her famed cooking. Ordinary meals become an emotional feast as those who eat her food are consumed by Tita's suppressed passion, anger, and resentment.The episodic structure of the novel is genius, separated month by month and beginning with the recipe around which the story will revolve. The characters are somewhat one-dimensional, but given that the novel has a fairytale quality to it and reads more as myth than reality, I'm willing to forgive that. What ruined the entire novel for me was the ending. I don't want to ruin it for other readers, so I will simply say that I don't think Tita chose the right man and leave it at that.Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
—Amanda
هذا الاسم الجذّاب للرواية "كالماء للشوكولاتة" هو تعبير عن حالة مزاجية سيئة لتيتا بطلة الرواية التي تتشكل حياتها منذ الولادة داخل المطبخ، الواقعية السحرية وتغلغل الروائح والنكهات في الرواية يجعل منها فاهيتا أدبية لذيذة لتُقرأ في جلسة واحدة.الدمع الفائض يسيل على درجات السلم ويُسمّم حلوى الزفاف، خميرة الغضب لها فاعلية أسرع من خميرة الخبز، اشتعال جذوة الحب يسبب الحرائق والنهايات الدرامية !الرواية هي رؤية للحياة بعينيّ حبيسة ماما إيلينا المتمردة، تشببهات الكاتبة الفاتنة تظهر غنية بالنكهة والمعنى كأطباق تيتا، لم يروق لي ظهور بعض الأحداث والشخصيات الجانبية في الرواية، كانت تحمل أثر الدراما الخليجية بشكل ما. أيضاً شخصية تيتا تجعل القارىء يقارنها في ذاكرته بابنة حظ ألليندي وفيرمينا داثا ماركيز - لمن سبق له قراءة ابنة الحظ والحب في زمن الكوليرا- هنا رابط الفيلم المقتبس عن الرواية :http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0103994/بالنسبة لي بعد خيبة فيلم الحب في زمن الكوليرا لا أتوقع من السينما أن تكون موصّل جيد لسحر الروايات اللاتينية كما هي في خيالات قراءها.
—amal
Tita is the youngest in her family, and is therefore tasked with taking care of her mother and becoming the cook of the family. She is not allowed to marry, and Mama Elena is determined to keep her from participating in any sinful activities. Mama Elena can't keep Tita's emotions from having an impact on everyone who eats her food, however, and each chapter comes with its own recipe, its own emotion, and its own little tale of emotion manifested in food consumed. I love this part of the story, and the food-writing is by far the strongest element of this novel. (I don't recommend reading it on an empty stomach!)Other elements of the story aren't as successful for me. Clearly this is set when Mexico is at war, but it is only mentioned in passing when convenient, almost by accident. Major characters are effected by the violence and lack of safety in their daily lives, but it is downplayed. I'm not sure why the author included it at all if she didn't want to use it. The other part I dislike is that I think this is supposed to be a story of the fulfillment of unrequited love, but the man Tita loves is not appealing. Pedro is a sniveling, weak, whiner; and she only realizes their love will never die when he rapes her. (What?) There are other men in the story who are more interesting, and more mature. I saw the movie years ago, and I still think of it fondly, but it focuses more on the whimsical side of the story. 3/31/13 - Read this again for SFF Audio Readalong with Jesse and Dr. Eric Rabkin, but I forgot until the night before. Luckily this is a quick read, and I didn't get as angry at it this time around. I'll link to the podcast once it posts.
—Jenny (Reading Envy)
