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Book: Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Discussion:
Many of our regular members returned this month to discuss Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. The majority of the group liked the book, six readers gave it a thumbs up, four voted sideways, and one gave it a thumb down. The major complaint about the book was its fantastic nature. There are several elements of magical realism and mysticism in the novel, which may not be to everyone’s taste.
The translation was also remarked upon. One member has seen the movie four times, both in the original Spanish and the English version. She told us she had heard that the translation was not exact and that a bit of the story’s power may have been lost. Another Page Turner has read the book in Spanish and English and said the original version was much better.
In spite of this, more than one group member found that some of the book’s scenes were very humorous. One particular scene involved the sister Gertrudis getting very agitated after eating some of Tita’s cooking and trying to cool off in the shower, only to have the water evaporate from the heat and end up running around the farm naked.
In addition to Gertrudis, we discussed Tita’s sister, Rosaura, quite a bit, especially the bodily issues she suffered from after marrying Pedro. No one seemed to particularly care for her, perhaps because she married Tita’s boyfriend, though one Page Turner did mention that she did not have much of a choice considering how the girls’ mother Elena was.
At this point we began to discuss the mother in detail. Elena was a traditionalist, which was why she singled out one of her daughters, Tita, to care for her until she died. The other girls were allowed to marry in order from oldest to youngest. She often repeated the phrase hasta el muerto to Tita, reminding her that they would be together until she died. Several group members said that the remark resembled a kind of threat and probably made Tita wish her mother would pass on sooner than later. One Page Turner slyly mentioned that this threat could have put Elena in grave danger.
We also discussed the rivalry between Pedro and John Brown for Tita’s love. Although we knew Tita and Pedro were the star-crossed lovers of the novel, a few of us were rooting for Doctor John, even if we knew he probably would not get the girl. The wedding at the end, where Tita’s niece marries John’s son threw some of us off a bit. I personally was hoping the wedding in question would be Tita’s and John’s.
We soon strayed into talking about food and cooking. I told the group how I had heard that most of the recipes included in the book did not really work out when made, but that after reading the book I wished I had something fancy to eat, such as the quail with rose-petals described in the story. One Page Turner said that if she had to cook like Tita did her family would never eat!
From here the conversation segued into families in general. We talked about the roles families play in different cultures and in our own.
We ended the meeting by discussing the significance of the title of the novel. Apparently, chocolate has to reach a certain boiling point when made. If it does not get hot enough it does not turn out well, but if it gets too hot it boils over. We decided that the chocolate represents Tita and her emotions, and that her feelings often boiled over!
As usual, flyers for upcoming library programs and next month’s selection, in this case Edward P. Jones’ The Known World, were distributed at the close of the meeting.
Monday, March 8, 2010
January 28, 2010: Page Turners 7 p.m.
Book: The Private Patient by P. D. James
Discussion:
We had a smaller group for our first meeting of the new year to discuss P.D. James’ The Private Patient. The book garnered only a lukewarm reception. Of the readers present, five out of six gave it a thumbs sideways vote, and the sixth gave it somewhere between an up and sideways vote.
We all wanted to like the book, but we could not quite do it. One reason for this may be the extensive vocabulary James employed. One Page Turner relayed her vote by email, saying that it reminded her of her children’s homework which required them to find a certain amount of big words and look up their meanings. Other members shared this view, even pointing out specific words they had never before encountered. One such word was "uxorious", which I have since discovered means to dote upon one’s wife, perhaps to a foolish extent. The term was used to describe Dean, the clinic’s cook, who constantly worried about his wife and her ability to cope with the stress of restaurant work.
The subplot of Dean and his wife Kimberly was actually one of many extraneous plotlines and another possible reason for our tepid response to the book. There were several of these types of subplots such as Marcus’ desire to go to Africa, Sharon’s obsession with the occult, Robyn’s etiquette business, and Candace’s father’s will. Perhaps James was using these storylines to keep us on our toes and prevent us from figuring out the killer’s identity too early, however they just did not make a lot of sense.
We did not find too many of the characters, aside from the detectives, likeable either, which may be another reason we were not too interested in their individual storylines. Rhoda, in particular did not strike us as an enjoyable person. James gives us several early chapters focusing on our victim, but in the end we still did not feel as if we really knew her. We learned about the history of her scar, her relationship with Robyn, who seemed a bit of a mooch, and her feelings about her mother, yet we did not really care that much that she was killed.
Having read a summary of the book we did know that the murder was coming. I personally felt it took a long time to get around to it. However, there were a few twists in the story that we did not expect, such as Sharon turning out to have been a murderer as a child, the reappearance of a man she had been obsessed with for approximately ten years, and Robyn’s uncomfortable death in the freezer.
In spite of these twists the ending did not seem to have the requisite British mystery twist to it. Candace had been against Rhoda coming to the clinic from the beginning and is identified as the killer almost fifty pages before the novel’s end. This seemed a bit anticlimactic to me, but I suppose the fire at the end was intended to make up for it.
Another surprise came at the end, the engagement of Dr. Chandler Powell and Helena Cressett. Powell had been previously involved with Sister Flavia, which made this into a strange sort of love triangle similar to Rhoda’s obscure relationship with Robyn.
A couple of Page Turners had read a few of the books in this series before, but no one present had read them all. We discussed a few of them and the television series before moving on to other favorite mystery writers and crime programs. Some recommended authors included Janet Evanovich, Charles Todd, Deborah Crombie, Clive Cussler, and Anne Perry. The television shows discussed were crime mysteries like The Mentalist, CSI, and Bones.
As usual flyers for upcoming library programs and next month’s selection, in this case Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, were distributed at the close of the meeting.
Discussion:
We had a smaller group for our first meeting of the new year to discuss P.D. James’ The Private Patient. The book garnered only a lukewarm reception. Of the readers present, five out of six gave it a thumbs sideways vote, and the sixth gave it somewhere between an up and sideways vote.
We all wanted to like the book, but we could not quite do it. One reason for this may be the extensive vocabulary James employed. One Page Turner relayed her vote by email, saying that it reminded her of her children’s homework which required them to find a certain amount of big words and look up their meanings. Other members shared this view, even pointing out specific words they had never before encountered. One such word was "uxorious", which I have since discovered means to dote upon one’s wife, perhaps to a foolish extent. The term was used to describe Dean, the clinic’s cook, who constantly worried about his wife and her ability to cope with the stress of restaurant work.
The subplot of Dean and his wife Kimberly was actually one of many extraneous plotlines and another possible reason for our tepid response to the book. There were several of these types of subplots such as Marcus’ desire to go to Africa, Sharon’s obsession with the occult, Robyn’s etiquette business, and Candace’s father’s will. Perhaps James was using these storylines to keep us on our toes and prevent us from figuring out the killer’s identity too early, however they just did not make a lot of sense.
We did not find too many of the characters, aside from the detectives, likeable either, which may be another reason we were not too interested in their individual storylines. Rhoda, in particular did not strike us as an enjoyable person. James gives us several early chapters focusing on our victim, but in the end we still did not feel as if we really knew her. We learned about the history of her scar, her relationship with Robyn, who seemed a bit of a mooch, and her feelings about her mother, yet we did not really care that much that she was killed.
Having read a summary of the book we did know that the murder was coming. I personally felt it took a long time to get around to it. However, there were a few twists in the story that we did not expect, such as Sharon turning out to have been a murderer as a child, the reappearance of a man she had been obsessed with for approximately ten years, and Robyn’s uncomfortable death in the freezer.
In spite of these twists the ending did not seem to have the requisite British mystery twist to it. Candace had been against Rhoda coming to the clinic from the beginning and is identified as the killer almost fifty pages before the novel’s end. This seemed a bit anticlimactic to me, but I suppose the fire at the end was intended to make up for it.
Another surprise came at the end, the engagement of Dr. Chandler Powell and Helena Cressett. Powell had been previously involved with Sister Flavia, which made this into a strange sort of love triangle similar to Rhoda’s obscure relationship with Robyn.
A couple of Page Turners had read a few of the books in this series before, but no one present had read them all. We discussed a few of them and the television series before moving on to other favorite mystery writers and crime programs. Some recommended authors included Janet Evanovich, Charles Todd, Deborah Crombie, Clive Cussler, and Anne Perry. The television shows discussed were crime mysteries like The Mentalist, CSI, and Bones.
As usual flyers for upcoming library programs and next month’s selection, in this case Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, were distributed at the close of the meeting.
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