Nose in a Book

The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint.

Read for: Once Upon a Time Challenge

So apparently, de Lint has written several other books that take place in Newford, his fictitious city but I’ve never read any of the others. I read some where that I probably wouldn’t want to read this book if I’d never read any of the others from Newford.   A lot of the supporting characters in this novel have starred in their own novels prior to appearing in this one.  I did not find that a problem for me.  I kept wishing I had already read them, but not because I felt I missing any of the story but just because the little tidbits the readers were given about their lives were so compelling.

This particular novel is about Jilly Coppercorn (for those of you who have read the rest of the Newford books) who has appeared in several, if not all of the other books in the Newford series.  Anyway, the book begins with Jilly being hit by a car and subsequently waking up in the hospital unable to move one side of her body.  This is a huge problem for her because she is an artist and uses that side of her body to paint.  Another side effect of her accident is her new ability to visit the other world or manido-aki in her dreams.  Manido-aki is a basically a parallel place where anything is possible.  I don’t know much about native american mythology, but I think most of what goes on in this other world is based on that mythology.  (Correct me if I’m wrong!) She has friends there that are shape shifters and she befriends a man who was brought into life by an author who had imagined him for several of her stories.

As Jilly is trying to recover from her accident she is told that in order for that to happen she’s going to have to look inside first to heal an old hurt before she will be able to heal her physical body.  Jilly has had a hard life and as she looks back at the things she’s had to endure the story shifts to someone from her past that may be able to help her heal those internal hurts.

My favourite part of this book was the dreamlands and the way that de Lint wove it into the story.  I am looking forward to reading more books about the people of Newford that are able to travel back and forth between the World As It Is (what they call our world) and the dreamlands.  Some people are able to travel back and forth at will and others must enter through their dreams.  The book dealt with some pretty heavy issues (sexual abuse, drug use and prostitution) but I didn’t feel bogged down or depressed by these parts of the book.  De Lint didn’t going into descriptive detail about these things but more sensitive readers might want to avoid this book.  But overall, it was an enjoyable read and I will definitely be picking up some of the other books from the Newford series.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

Read for: Once Upon a Time Challenge

Tita, the youngest daughter in her family is required by family tradition to remain unmarried so she can take care of her mother in her old age.  As the story begins, a young man has come to ask for Tita’s hand.  Her mother, who is truly hateful, refuses but offers Tita’s older sister instead.  The young man (Pedro) accepts, in hopes that this will allow him to be close to Tita.  The rest of the book tells the story of Tita and Pedro and Tita’s family.

A major part of the story takes place in the kitchen because this is where Tita spends more of her time.  Tita is a very talented and magical cook and puts a lot of care into the meals she prepares.  Each chapter begins with a recipe and the preparation instructions are woven into the story.  When Tita prepares meals she unknowingly adds a little bit of her emotion which affects the people who eat her food.  Sometimes these effects are disastrous, sometimes they are hilarious. Tita’s food tastes bitter to her mother, causes one of her sisters to become obese and causes the other in a fit of passion to run off to find love.

The descriptions of Tita’s food are mouth watering.  Every time I picked the book up, I found I was hungry!  I could almost taste her meals as I read.  The book was light and funny and a quick read.

Like Water for Chocolate belongs to the magical realism genre.  I’ve read other books from this genre before without realizing that’s what they were!  These are books where magical elements appear in stories that are otherwise realistic.  I like this idea.  It’s kind of fun to think that I could cook my emotions into my food.  Overall, it was an enjoyable read.