[at-l] Book/Movie review of Like Water for Chocolate

[nealb@midlandstech.com (William Neal)]

The following is a book review (not by me) and movie review of LIKE WATER
FOR CHOCOLATE.  
Also, in Mexico, Chocolate seems to be used for a lot of things besides
sweets and hot drinks. 

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE 
By Roger Ebert
"In Mexico, so I have learned, hot chocolate is made with water, not milk.
The water is brought to a boil and then the chocolate is spooned into it. A
person in a state of sexual excitement is said to be "like water for
chocolate." And now here is a movie where everyone seems at the boil, their
lives centering around a woman whose sensual life is carried out in the
kitchen, and whose food is so magical it can inspire people to laugh, or
cry, or run naked from the house to be scooped up and carried away by a
passing revolutionary. "

On the book
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel 
Like Water For Chocolate is a deceptively simple book - a love story set in
Mexico, interspersed with recipes, related in unadorned, uncomplicated
language. Yet when the ingredients are combined and simmer, subtle and
unusual flavors emerge. On one level, this is the story of Tita, youngest
daughter of the formidable matriarch Mama Elena who forbids Tita to marry
her true love Pedro because tradition says that the youngest daughter must
care for her mother until her death. When Pedro marries Tita's oldest sister
in order to be near Tita, it begins a life-long conflict filled with
passion, deception, anger, and pure love. Interwoven throughout the
narrative are the
recipes, which, like an ancient Greek chorus, provide an ongoing
metaphorical commentary on the characters and their culture. Finally, there
is the food itself that Tita creates as head cook on the family ranch, food
so vibrant and sensual, so imbued with her feelings of longing, frustration,
rebellion, or love, that it affects everyone who eats it. The combination of
all     these elements, with a good measure of the supernatural thrown in,
makes for an earthy, quirky book, sad and funny,  passionate, and direct,
told by Tita's grand-niece who follows in her footsteps, using her cookbook
and continuing a tradition quite different from the one her
great-grandmother tried to impose.

William, The Turtle