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meganbmooreThis is an amazingly frustrating story told in an extremely charming way.
Tita is the youngest of three daughters, and is in love with Pedro. Because she’s the youngest, however, she isn’t allowed to marry, and has to take care of her mother until one of them dies. When Pedro asks to marry her, Mama Elena says no, but her middle daughter, Rosaura, is the right age to marry. Pedro says yes on the spot. No one bothers to ask Rosaura what she thinks, but she’s an evil boyfriend thief anyway.
Esquivel has some interesting themes going on here regarding the roles of women in Mexican families, but they’re buried in pitting the Evil Mother and Evil Sister against the Virtuous Heroine. While Pedro isn’t held up as completely innocent in the misery of Tita’s life, he’s still written as her co-protagonist against all the other evil women. (I mean, seriously, married her sister! He loved her so much he didn’t think twice about making both women miserable by having them all live in the same house so his wife could know he married her to be with someone else and the one he loved could see them married while she was treated like a servant! But Rosaura’s worse for being mad and petty about her husband being in love with her sister.)
I watched this in Spanish class in college, and hated every single character except for a doctor who’s in love with Tita (But he’s wrong for her because…she knew Pedro first? I don’t know. That triangle is almost as infuriating as the main one!) and the oldest sister, who runs away to become a revolutionary. The book didn’t make me like any of them more.
On the other hand, there’s the magical realism. When Tita cries into the food she makes, everyone is sad when they eat it. When she uses the petals of roses Pedro gives her in a recipe, people are filled with lust. When she cooks for someone she’s angry with, the food is bitter, causes flatulence, and tastes foul. Between each chapter there’s the ingredients of a recipe, and the chapter begins with the narrator giving the directions, and then segueing into the narration. I would start every chapter utterly charmed, and then be clenching the book in frustration by the end of the chapter.
Tita is the youngest of three daughters, and is in love with Pedro. Because she’s the youngest, however, she isn’t allowed to marry, and has to take care of her mother until one of them dies. When Pedro asks to marry her, Mama Elena says no, but her middle daughter, Rosaura, is the right age to marry. Pedro says yes on the spot. No one bothers to ask Rosaura what she thinks, but she’s an evil boyfriend thief anyway.
Esquivel has some interesting themes going on here regarding the roles of women in Mexican families, but they’re buried in pitting the Evil Mother and Evil Sister against the Virtuous Heroine. While Pedro isn’t held up as completely innocent in the misery of Tita’s life, he’s still written as her co-protagonist against all the other evil women. (I mean, seriously, married her sister! He loved her so much he didn’t think twice about making both women miserable by having them all live in the same house so his wife could know he married her to be with someone else and the one he loved could see them married while she was treated like a servant! But Rosaura’s worse for being mad and petty about her husband being in love with her sister.)
I watched this in Spanish class in college, and hated every single character except for a doctor who’s in love with Tita (But he’s wrong for her because…she knew Pedro first? I don’t know. That triangle is almost as infuriating as the main one!) and the oldest sister, who runs away to become a revolutionary. The book didn’t make me like any of them more.
On the other hand, there’s the magical realism. When Tita cries into the food she makes, everyone is sad when they eat it. When she uses the petals of roses Pedro gives her in a recipe, people are filled with lust. When she cooks for someone she’s angry with, the food is bitter, causes flatulence, and tastes foul. Between each chapter there’s the ingredients of a recipe, and the chapter begins with the narrator giving the directions, and then segueing into the narration. I would start every chapter utterly charmed, and then be clenching the book in frustration by the end of the chapter.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 06:17 am (UTC)This review makes me no more eager to reread. >.>