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The law of love
Esquivel, Laura
Adult Fiction ESQUIVEL
From Publishers' Weekly:
This followup to Esquivel's bestselling Like Water for Chocolate is propelled by the same jolly, reckless storytelling energy that has won the Mexican author so many fans, but skimpy character development and a breathlessly byzantine plot keep bringing the novel up short. Composed in a tantalizing style of New Age-sci-fi-magical realism, the tale is set in the year 2200, when astroanalyst Azucena Martinez, who lives in Mexico City, has been permitted at last to meet her twin soul, Rodrigo Sánchez, the man with whom she is to experience the ecstasy of perfect romantic union. And not a moment too soon; not only is Azucena terribly lonely, but she has finally paid off all the karmic debts accumulated in her 14,000 past lives. Alas for her, Rodrigo is not as karmically pure, and the day after their night of bliss, he is framed for murder and deported to the penal planet of Korma. As it turns out, this is all part of a divine plan: Azucena's quest to be reunited with her lover sets in motion a chain of events that will lead to the restoration of the law of Love on planet Earth. Esquivel punctuates her narrative with full-color "graphic novel" segments (by Spanish artist Miguelanxo Prado). The book also includes an 11-track CD of Puccini arias that figure in the plot and some remarkable Mexican "danzones," billed in the text as "Intervals for Dancing." In Azucena, Esquivel has created a delightfully feisty, unpretentious character; it is the reader's loss that neither she nor Rodrigo are ever fully developed, and that their love story is repeatedly upstaged by a fantastical setting and long-winded metaphysical discourse. First serial to L.A. Times Magazine. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
In Esquivel's brave new world, people are fully aware of the burdens of past incarnations as they work them out, the memories objects retain of what they have witnessed can be retrieved, and viritual reality is, well, a reality. But there's romance in the life of astroanalyst Azucena, albeit of the New Age variety; she is trying to get in contact with Rodrigo, her twin soul. When Azucena returns home one day via aerophone, she finds herself in the middle of a mysterythere's a dead body in her apartmentand soon she's on the run from powerful forces that want her dead. She manages a body transplant and enlists the help of a neighbora non-Evo, it's true, but some issues are above classand eventually discovers a tragic connection to a stop-at-nothing candidate for Planetary President named Isabel. In the end, even Isabel is conquered by love. Throughout, in a page torn from the graphic novels popular in Esquivel's native Mexico, illustrations clarify the proceedings (including rape and murder), and an accompanying CD provides appropriate music. Esquivel's follow-up to the best-selling Like Water for Chocolate (LJ 9/1/92) mixes bits of every genre imaginable, and the result is at once wildly inventive and slightly silly, energetic and clichéd. Thoughtful readers will be troubled by the implications of Esquivel's philosophizingeverything that happens may happen for a reason, but here it feels not like the Divine Love Esquivel promotes but a rationalization of evil. Still, Chocolate fans will eat this up. For most collections.Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Esquivel, Laura
Adult Fiction ESQUIVEL
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From Publishers' Weekly:
This followup to Esquivel's bestselling Like Water for Chocolate is propelled by the same jolly, reckless storytelling energy that has won the Mexican author so many fans, but skimpy character development and a breathlessly byzantine plot keep bringing the novel up short. Composed in a tantalizing style of New Age-sci-fi-magical realism, the tale is set in the year 2200, when astroanalyst Azucena Martinez, who lives in Mexico City, has been permitted at last to meet her twin soul, Rodrigo Sánchez, the man with whom she is to experience the ecstasy of perfect romantic union. And not a moment too soon; not only is Azucena terribly lonely, but she has finally paid off all the karmic debts accumulated in her 14,000 past lives. Alas for her, Rodrigo is not as karmically pure, and the day after their night of bliss, he is framed for murder and deported to the penal planet of Korma. As it turns out, this is all part of a divine plan: Azucena's quest to be reunited with her lover sets in motion a chain of events that will lead to the restoration of the law of Love on planet Earth. Esquivel punctuates her narrative with full-color "graphic novel" segments (by Spanish artist Miguelanxo Prado). The book also includes an 11-track CD of Puccini arias that figure in the plot and some remarkable Mexican "danzones," billed in the text as "Intervals for Dancing." In Azucena, Esquivel has created a delightfully feisty, unpretentious character; it is the reader's loss that neither she nor Rodrigo are ever fully developed, and that their love story is repeatedly upstaged by a fantastical setting and long-winded metaphysical discourse. First serial to L.A. Times Magazine. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
In Esquivel's brave new world, people are fully aware of the burdens of past incarnations as they work them out, the memories objects retain of what they have witnessed can be retrieved, and viritual reality is, well, a reality. But there's romance in the life of astroanalyst Azucena, albeit of the New Age variety; she is trying to get in contact with Rodrigo, her twin soul. When Azucena returns home one day via aerophone, she finds herself in the middle of a mysterythere's a dead body in her apartmentand soon she's on the run from powerful forces that want her dead. She manages a body transplant and enlists the help of a neighbora non-Evo, it's true, but some issues are above classand eventually discovers a tragic connection to a stop-at-nothing candidate for Planetary President named Isabel. In the end, even Isabel is conquered by love. Throughout, in a page torn from the graphic novels popular in Esquivel's native Mexico, illustrations clarify the proceedings (including rape and murder), and an accompanying CD provides appropriate music. Esquivel's follow-up to the best-selling Like Water for Chocolate (LJ 9/1/92) mixes bits of every genre imaginable, and the result is at once wildly inventive and slightly silly, energetic and clichéd. Thoughtful readers will be troubled by the implications of Esquivel's philosophizingeverything that happens may happen for a reason, but here it feels not like the Divine Love Esquivel promotes but a rationalization of evil. Still, Chocolate fans will eat this up. For most collections.Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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