AUTHOR: Laura Esquivel
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 1989 (1992 in the US)
GENRE: Romance, Magical Realism I guess...
PREMISE: A woman deals with not being able to be with the man she loves...
MY REVIEW: This book....I just don't really know what to make of it. This is one of those books that people absolutely love. Unfortunately, it just was very much a case of not for me.
First: it's magical realism and all the frustrations that come with that genre for me. It's slow and tedious. The author clearly wanted me to feel sorry for the main character, because of all the stuff she piled on her. But...all I kept thinking was why didn't she tell her mother to go jump in the river? The whole "you only have to take care of me and you can't marry!" thing made absolutely no logical sense. That I think is what ultimately hindered the book for me. Throughout it I kept waiting for someone to go "hey, you know this is seriously messed up, right?" but no one did. Like...really? As for the love interest....I kept getting told by fans of this book how super romantic he was...I frankly did not see it. He wasn't quite as bad as the guy from Love in the Time of Cholera (don't get me started on that nonsense) but he still wasn't great.
So yeah...maybe if you're super romantic this one is for you. Me....I just kept going "but this makes no sense!" during the entire book, so that hindered the experience of it for me. The writing is pretty, I'll give the author that. Apparently there was all this symbolism in it that was great, according to literature snobs (those apparently went over my head during my boredom). If you want your happy ending, you get it. I just...could not with this one. Oh magical realism, why can't I get you?????!!!!!
WHO SHOULD READ: Super romantic fans not bothered by ridiculous premises, magical realism fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five not for me feelings
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