Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

The interwoven love story that takes the phrase “till death do us part” to a whole new level as it relates to a tradition within a culture that requires the youngest daughter to remain unmarried for the sole purpose of caring for the mother until the mother’s death.  Birth order may have its privileges but as experienced by the characters here it could be a lifetime of regrets, misery, adultery and lost opportunity to marry for love.

Three sisters each controlled by the whims of their mean spirited mother with the truth behind the mother’s driven “drama” only discovered after her death.   The truth does not excuse her actions IN ANY WAY but shows how people do retaliate against others who are directly and indirectly related through no fault of their own. Tita, the main character was hated by her own mother from the moment of birth LITERALLY.  But for the sake of loving cook in the family kitchen who picked Tita up from the kitchen floor Tita would have died. Her life continued to be nurtured in the kitchen by that loving cook

I like Tita, the main character, and felt for her during the entire story. Imagine falling in love but being forbid to marry him, your mother convinces him to marry another daughter and then being made to prepare the marriage feast including the wedding cake.  The effect of the tears that fall into the food has a most unusual effect on the guests, particularly the bride with publicly and privately physically humiliating results. 

Who knew that the tears fallen into a recipe could cause such emotional and sometimes physical reactions by those later in the story who partook the food which included depression and melancholy, suicide, one of the sisters was so overcome that she discarded her clothing while running away from home and literally rode off into the sunset on the back of a horse with a stranger, the entire life of the main character revolves around food. 

Yes, this book includes relationships, what initially appeared to be star-crossed lovers, food and the strange effects it had on people which included life choices, and an ending that one would expect that only a seasoned author could devise.   This is the first book by this author which was produced into a movie with both the book and movie receiving many awards and much recognition.

On a personal note it included recipes with detailed descriptions.