One Of My Favorites!

Like Water for Chocolate is one of my top five favorite books. My copy of the book is full of dog-eared pages, stains, water marks and the cover is bent. Like an old friend, LWFC has grown with me. It is so interesting to me that though I've read it so many times, this class is showing me new perspectives and I'm catching things I never noticed before. I guess that happens often with things we read again and again- each time something new jumps out! For example, today we talked about Rosaura. I said, "I hate her." but when I listened to the discussion and the points people brought up I realized that wasn't exactly true. I really HATE what she does when she marries Pedro- he's her sister's sweetheart, after all! What kind of sister does such a thing, even at the insistence of pushy Mama Elena? But, on the other hand, I feel intense pity for her. Rosaura is married to a man who obviously doesn't love her. It takes them 4 months to even consumate the marriage and she has to remind him to do it! I can imagine the mortification she must have felt. That coupled with the fact that she loses her first baby makes it hard to not feel sorry for her. So, I guess I alternate between pitying her and disliking her. I definitely relate to Tita the most and I think she is one of the strongest, most interesting heroines we've read about. I also love the way the magic realism is weaved throughout. I know some students are finding it jarring but to me, it just works. I accept it as fact and I love the idea of emotion being transmitted through food. One of my other favorite books about food is called Legend by Jude Deveraux- this is a romance novel so a bit different but it also deals with some fantastic things (time travel, ghosts, etc) as well as the power of food. I love how LWFC has the recipes in it and I must say it's a goal of mine to one day make some of the food (that is, if I can find a gluten-free, vegetarian alteration!). LWFC is a beautiful, sexy and interesting novel and I hate that it's going by so fast- the discussion today was great and I'm excited to have more!