Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments - Laura Esquivel Audiobook

Written by Laura Esquivel
Read by Kate Reading
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 80 Kbps
Unabridged

Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies

Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
Release date: 07-23-04
Publisher: Books on Tape

The best-selling phenomenon and inspiration for an award-winning film.

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico blends poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother’s womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef, using cooking to express herself and sharing recipes with readers along the way.

Each chapter of screenwriter Esquivel’s utterly charming interpretation of life in turn-of-the-century Mexico begins with a recipe–not surprisingly, since so much of the action of this exquisite first novel (a bestseller in Mexico) centers around the kitchen, the heart and soul of a traditional Mexican family.

The youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, Tita has always known her destiny: to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother quickly scotches the liaison and tyrannically dictates that Tita’s sister Rosaura must marry the luckless suitor, Pedro, in her place. But Tita has one weapon left–her cooking. Esquivel mischievously appropriates the techniques of magical realism to make Tita’s contact with food sensual, instinctual and often explosive.

Forced to make the cake for her sister’s wedding, Tita pours her emotions into the task; each guest who samples a piece bursts into tears. Esquivel does a splendid job of describing the frustration, love and hope expressed through the most domestic and feminine of arts, family cooking, suggesting by implication the limited options available to Mexican women of this period. Tita’s unrequited love for Pedro survives the Mexican Revolution the births of Rosaura and Pedro’s children, even a proposal of marriage from an eligible doctor.

In a poignant conclusion, Tita manages to break the bonds of tradition, if not for her, then for future generations.

Translated in 1992 by Carol and Thomas Christensen for Doubleday then recorded in 1994. Originally on tape and later digitized in 2004. The sound in some chapters, three and five in particular, is uneven. This is my rip from CD. This marvelous little book needed a clean upload. The phrase “to be continued” at the end of each month is in the written text.