ok this is my new favourite work in the magic realism genre. Not actually sure what my previous favourite is...probably Love in the Time of Cholera. These two are actually decently comparable. Like Water for Chocolate is definitely an easier read tho, more straightforward. The writing is not as beautiful, but that could be a translation thing. But I guess the plot won me over? The side characters are treated well too. But most importantly each chapter is intertwined with a recipe, and a lot of the magic is conveyed through the food that is prepared by the main character. I love how domestic the book is, is this a late 20s thing? Nesting desires are very strong haha.
One analogy I really enjoy:
As you see, within our bodies each of us has the elements needed to produce phosphorus. And let me tell you something I've never told a soul. My grandmother had a very interesting theory; she said that each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves; just as in the experiment, we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the oxygen, for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle could be any kind of food, music, caress, word, or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the matches. For a moment we are dazzled by an intense emotion. A pleasant warmth grows within us, fading slowly as time goes by, until a new explosion comes along to revive it.
Each person has to discover what will set off those explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul. That fire, in short, is its food. If one doesn't find out in time what will set off these explosions, the box of matches dampens, and not a single match will ever be lighted.
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