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Like Water for Chocolate

a Novel in Monthly Installments, With Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies
Sep 23, 2018
The magical realism is skillful and emotional, and there were passages, like Tita trying to feed the pigeon, that worked really well for me. But the romance at the center of the book is horrifying. Pedro willingly marries Tita’s sister Rosaura to get closer to her, with no regard for Rosaura’s feelings or future. Once he’s part of the household, though, he makes no clear attempts to stop or lessen the abuse toward the woman he supposedly loves. His one caring act, bringing Tita a showy bouquet of flowers, is a move guaranteed to make tensions worse. He doesn’t grow a spine when Tita’s mother forbids their marriage or orders him out of town: he waits until Tita is engaged to a man who would at least treat her with kindness and care. After a day of escalating refusals to take her no for an answer, he sexually assaults the woman he claims to love. Love doesn’t matter at that point. This is a man incapable of putting anyone’s happiness over his own comfort. It’s understandable that attention-starved Tita could fall for someone who showed her intermittent neglect instead of total neglect. If the book had seemed to understand how awful their dynamic was, it could’ve been a heartbreaking tragedy. But with their love presented as right and inescapable, it’s just unintentionally heartbreaking.