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Hungry Woman in Paris
A journalist and activist, Canela believes passion is essential to life; but lately passion seems to be in short supply. It has disappeared from her relationship with her fiancé, who is more interested in controlling her than encouraging her. It's absent from her work, where censorship and politics keep important stories from being published. And while her family is full of outspoken individuals, the only one Canela can truly call passionate is her cousin and best friend Luna, who just took her own life. Canela can't recover from Luna's death. She is haunted by her ghost and feels acute pain for the dreams that went unrealized. Canela breaks off her engagement and uses her now un-necessary honeymoon ticket, to escape to Paris. Impulsively, she sublets a small apartment and enrolls at Le Coq Rouge, Paris's most prestigious culinary institute. Cooking school is a sensual and spiritual reawakening that brings back Canela's hunger for life. With a series of new friends and lovers, she learns to once again savor the world around her. Finally able to cope with Luna's death, Canela returns home to her family, and to the kind of life she thought she had lost forever.
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Josefina López
13 books15 followersFrom Wikipedia: López was born in 1969, in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and at age five emigrated with her family to the United States, where they settled in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts before obtaining a BA in film and screenwriting from Columbia College Chicago, and an MFA in screenwriting from the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA.
Lopez was undocumented for 13 years before she received Amnesty in 1987 and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995. Lopez is the recipient of a number of other awards and accolades, including a formal recognition from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer's 7th Annual "Women Making History" banquet in 1998; and a screenwriting fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2001. She and Real Women Have Curves co-author George LaVoo won the Humanitas Prize for Screenwriting in 2002, The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Award from Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn in 2003, and the Artist-in-Residency grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group for 2007.
Lopez was undocumented for 13 years before she received Amnesty in 1987 and eventually became a U.S. Citizen in 1995. Lopez is the recipient of a number of other awards and accolades, including a formal recognition from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer's 7th Annual "Women Making History" banquet in 1998; and a screenwriting fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2001. She and Real Women Have Curves co-author George LaVoo won the Humanitas Prize for Screenwriting in 2002, The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Award from Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn in 2003, and the Artist-in-Residency grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group for 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
August 24, 2009
When you're starving -- for food, for companionship, for validation, for sex, for a relationship -- does that extreme hunger give you permission to toss aside any and all rules and just go for it?
And when does an author cross the line from effectively conveying those deep needs to downright vulgarity in detail?
You will need to keep those questions in mind when reading this book. Ms. Lopez gives us Canela, a 29-year-old in crisis who flees to Paris to escape a fiance, her grief, her judgmental family and her own timelines for being an adult. Canela's experiences as an undocumented Mexican immigrant make her particularly sensitive to the cultural issues of Paris in 2007-08, which she dives into headlong and inhibition-free while she signs on for cooking classes at (a vaguely disguised) Le Cordon Bleu.
She pursues men, sex, food, wine and emotion with her self-proclaimed feministic zeal, which is simply a weak excuse for promiscuity and over-indulgence, as well as the opportunity to shirk off responsibility to people who love her. Feminism it seems is the focus on one's self and libido regardless of the long-term consequences.
While Lopez is an award-winning screenwriter, she is at a complete loss in the novel genre. Her rhetoric is clunky, simplistic, vain, and self-indulgent. Character development is a hopscotch around the book, and what you do glean about Canela is not particularly sympathetic or inspiring.
Save yourself some time. Go re-read "Fear of Flying" by Erica Jong before reading this. At least Jong's a decent writer.
And when does an author cross the line from effectively conveying those deep needs to downright vulgarity in detail?
You will need to keep those questions in mind when reading this book. Ms. Lopez gives us Canela, a 29-year-old in crisis who flees to Paris to escape a fiance, her grief, her judgmental family and her own timelines for being an adult. Canela's experiences as an undocumented Mexican immigrant make her particularly sensitive to the cultural issues of Paris in 2007-08, which she dives into headlong and inhibition-free while she signs on for cooking classes at (a vaguely disguised) Le Cordon Bleu.
She pursues men, sex, food, wine and emotion with her self-proclaimed feministic zeal, which is simply a weak excuse for promiscuity and over-indulgence, as well as the opportunity to shirk off responsibility to people who love her. Feminism it seems is the focus on one's self and libido regardless of the long-term consequences.
While Lopez is an award-winning screenwriter, she is at a complete loss in the novel genre. Her rhetoric is clunky, simplistic, vain, and self-indulgent. Character development is a hopscotch around the book, and what you do glean about Canela is not particularly sympathetic or inspiring.
Save yourself some time. Go re-read "Fear of Flying" by Erica Jong before reading this. At least Jong's a decent writer.
January 21, 2010
I think Lopez needs to stick to writing screenplays. Her writing was disjointed and it drove me crazy how she kept changing tenses. I appreciate that Canela was probably a little manic depressive but it was just annoying. Lopez herself said in her forward that her editor or friend shaped the book into something of a book. That should have told her something. I just couldn't identify with Canela or maybe her character was just very one dimensional. A sex crazed one dimensional idiot. I think the only part I enjoyed were the food descriptions.
September 16, 2009
I loved "Real Women Have Curves" so I was excited to find a novel from the same writer. I'm also a sucker for books that even mention cooking! What a let-down! This book was poorly written (tenses anyone?) and uncomfortable to read. The premise reads like every chick-lit book right now - unhappy girl, strained relationship with her family, broken engagement, leaves on a journey, blah blah blah. The characters are flat and cliche - two friends from cooking school are named Basil and Sage, the American jerk of the class is named Dick. I wasn't ready for the numerous and explicit sex scenes. I don't mind a little sex in a book, but I really don't need to hear about it. Not only that, but the situations that brought about the sex scenes were kind of against what I would call moral. (Call me a prude, but a foursome on the dance floor of a swingers club is *not* something I want to read or hear about, thank you.)
I'll give the author credit for some of Canela's (also a food name, ugh) thoughts about coming into her own and not doing the things that her family has outlined for her. That's the thing I loved about her movie and the thing that I most enjoyed about this book. Canela certainly forged her own path and, for that, Lopez should be praised. Unfortunately, you have to find your way through a lot of weeds to get there.
I'll give the author credit for some of Canela's (also a food name, ugh) thoughts about coming into her own and not doing the things that her family has outlined for her. That's the thing I loved about her movie and the thing that I most enjoyed about this book. Canela certainly forged her own path and, for that, Lopez should be praised. Unfortunately, you have to find your way through a lot of weeds to get there.
April 27, 2009
I was dissapointed because I LOVE Real Woman Have Curves. This was aimless and a lot of the chapters basically read like soft core porn. Maybe if I expected less, this would have been a better read, but as it was, I left it on the airplane for another unsuspecting reader.
March 27, 2009
Hungry Woman in Paris
Josefina Lopez
Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue; New York, NY 10017
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
978-0-446-69941-9, $12.99, March 2009
Excellent chic literature!
5 stars for amazon.com
This book is a journey for one female named Canela who goes thru a crisis, similar to a man’s mid life crisis. She has a falling out with her Editor, argues with her fiancé’, and tries to escape the haunting death of her cousin, Luna. Throughout the book, you get a glimpse of her illegal immigration status in the United States and how she disagreed with her mother on what she should do with her life. Canela has a very low self esteem and it affects her family life. Her mother would belittle her for making mistakes in the kitchen and Canela carried this shadow over her head for a really long time. In a sense, she runs away from it all to Paris, were she and her fiancé, Armando would have went for their honeymoon.
When Canela meets up with a friend in Paris, she finds out about a cooking school, Le Coq Rouge. In the beginning, she signs up for it just to kill time, to sort out what she wants to do with her life. In the long run, she needs this experience so that she can grow to be individual, instead of doing what everybody thinks she should do. While at the school, she has explicit sexual escapades with a man from the cooking school, Henry. He introduces her to a crazy world of swingers and she quickly realizes this is not for her. In between, there are a couple of other men that she has a tryst with. In the end, she realizes this was just what she needed to make her realize that she didn’t need anybody and that she could be content by being alone.
As she graduates from the cooking school, this act lifts her self-esteem level and makes her have more confidence in herself. It wasn’t just cooking, but being appreciated for doing a job well done. The turning point is when Henry cooks her a celebratory dish, and nobody had ever done that for her. As she returns to the United States, she realizes she had grown from the experience.
I really enjoyed this book and liked the glossary of terms in the back with Spanish and French words. It came in handy. Although her sexual escapades were really explicit, this novel is more geared for a mature reader.
Josefina Lopez
Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue; New York, NY 10017
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
978-0-446-69941-9, $12.99, March 2009
Excellent chic literature!
5 stars for amazon.com
This book is a journey for one female named Canela who goes thru a crisis, similar to a man’s mid life crisis. She has a falling out with her Editor, argues with her fiancé’, and tries to escape the haunting death of her cousin, Luna. Throughout the book, you get a glimpse of her illegal immigration status in the United States and how she disagreed with her mother on what she should do with her life. Canela has a very low self esteem and it affects her family life. Her mother would belittle her for making mistakes in the kitchen and Canela carried this shadow over her head for a really long time. In a sense, she runs away from it all to Paris, were she and her fiancé, Armando would have went for their honeymoon.
When Canela meets up with a friend in Paris, she finds out about a cooking school, Le Coq Rouge. In the beginning, she signs up for it just to kill time, to sort out what she wants to do with her life. In the long run, she needs this experience so that she can grow to be individual, instead of doing what everybody thinks she should do. While at the school, she has explicit sexual escapades with a man from the cooking school, Henry. He introduces her to a crazy world of swingers and she quickly realizes this is not for her. In between, there are a couple of other men that she has a tryst with. In the end, she realizes this was just what she needed to make her realize that she didn’t need anybody and that she could be content by being alone.
As she graduates from the cooking school, this act lifts her self-esteem level and makes her have more confidence in herself. It wasn’t just cooking, but being appreciated for doing a job well done. The turning point is when Henry cooks her a celebratory dish, and nobody had ever done that for her. As she returns to the United States, she realizes she had grown from the experience.
I really enjoyed this book and liked the glossary of terms in the back with Spanish and French words. It came in handy. Although her sexual escapades were really explicit, this novel is more geared for a mature reader.
April 6, 2009
Canela is unhappy. She and her fiancee have just broken off their engagement because they couldn’t agree on the menu for their reception and her favorite cousin has just committed suicide. Canela remembers that she has the tickets for her honeymoon in Paris and decides to go there on her own. After her time in the Honeymoon Suite runs out, she stays with a friend. Her friend explains to her that she can only stay in France for 3 months without a carte de sejour. Canela decides to enroll in culinary school since they’ll help her get her carte de sejour. Canela’s friend returns to the U. S. when her mother becomes ill, so Canela finds herself alone in a foreign city. While she doesn’t flourish at cooking school she manages to graduate and learns a lot about herself and life along the way.
A Hungry Woman in Paris by Josefina López is the story of Canela’s struggle to find her place in the world. She has to decide if she will succumb to the role that is expected of her or choose to be true to herself and her passions. Since Josefina has been an immigrant in two different societies (the U. S. and France) she does a fantastic job of describing what it’s like when you don’t feel like you fit in. Since we lived in France for two years, I really enjoyed the descriptions of Paris and the carte de sejour stories. I think the ending of the book sums it up very well:
"Everything is about food and hunger, whether it is hunger for the body or hunger for the soul. As long as I am alive I will always be hungry for revolution, for justice and truth, but I am no longer hungry for my soul the way I used to be. I have plenty of beautiful memories and life-inspiring moments to nourish my soul for many lifetimes. . . I hope this was delicious."
There are some graphic sexual scenes in this book that some readers may find offensive.
Josefina López is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and poet. She is the co-author of the movie Real Women Have Curves. This is her first novel, and she has another one in the works.
A Hungry Woman in Paris by Josefina López is the story of Canela’s struggle to find her place in the world. She has to decide if she will succumb to the role that is expected of her or choose to be true to herself and her passions. Since Josefina has been an immigrant in two different societies (the U. S. and France) she does a fantastic job of describing what it’s like when you don’t feel like you fit in. Since we lived in France for two years, I really enjoyed the descriptions of Paris and the carte de sejour stories. I think the ending of the book sums it up very well:
"Everything is about food and hunger, whether it is hunger for the body or hunger for the soul. As long as I am alive I will always be hungry for revolution, for justice and truth, but I am no longer hungry for my soul the way I used to be. I have plenty of beautiful memories and life-inspiring moments to nourish my soul for many lifetimes. . . I hope this was delicious."
There are some graphic sexual scenes in this book that some readers may find offensive.
Josefina López is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and poet. She is the co-author of the movie Real Women Have Curves. This is her first novel, and she has another one in the works.
September 21, 2009
A delicious, sexy, revelatory read. It is interesting that during my time with Ms. Lopez' book I went to see Julie and Julia, becoming completely immersed in Parisian cooking from all directions. How does Canela, the narrator, and my experiences resonate? Cooking was a chore foist upon me from the age of 11 when I became the 'woman of the house'. Canela's mother shooed her out of the kitchen and disparaged Canela's efforts to help. How Canela comes to register at the thinly veiled Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris for a year brings out a deep envy in me. My experience with cooking never led to anything so romantic as hers.
I loved Ms. Lopez' book for its earthy take on her growing sexuality. At my mature age I now can appreciate, even envy, her experiences both with cooking and with the various men she took up with. Her experience of being a lone Mexican American woman in Paris fascinated me. I identify with that cultural experience, now finding myself in a community where I am seeking out those very people. She speaks of being an immigrant and being undocumented until she was in her teens. I am encountering undocumented immigrants here, too.
As for knowing the proper technique for chopping vegetables, deboning fowl, carmelizing onions, learning good herb combinations? I am learning these skills even at this very moment. And for the first time, enjoying the learning curve.
I loved Ms. Lopez' book for its earthy take on her growing sexuality. At my mature age I now can appreciate, even envy, her experiences both with cooking and with the various men she took up with. Her experience of being a lone Mexican American woman in Paris fascinated me. I identify with that cultural experience, now finding myself in a community where I am seeking out those very people. She speaks of being an immigrant and being undocumented until she was in her teens. I am encountering undocumented immigrants here, too.
As for knowing the proper technique for chopping vegetables, deboning fowl, carmelizing onions, learning good herb combinations? I am learning these skills even at this very moment. And for the first time, enjoying the learning curve.
June 17, 2009
As a gourmand and a Francophile, I was attracted to this book immediately - it is an easy read and the story flows well. (and yes, there are some recipes in here.)
There are two tangential plots - this book sort of combined Fear of Flying with Like Water for Chocolate, with a dash of Eat, Pray, Love.
The main character Canela has broken off her engagement, her favorite cousin has committed suicide, and she goes off to visit a friend in Paris. I'll stop there but will tell you I enjoyed her forays at culinary school - some very funny episodes, particularly her description of competitive classmates' anal behavior.
This book has it all, love, comedy, sex, philosophy, politics - just when you think you know where the story is going, ding, ding, ding! Some other subplot jolts you and you're left wondering, now where did THAT come from??
I would have given this four stars but I found the ending slightly unsatisfactory.
There are two tangential plots - this book sort of combined Fear of Flying with Like Water for Chocolate, with a dash of Eat, Pray, Love.
The main character Canela has broken off her engagement, her favorite cousin has committed suicide, and she goes off to visit a friend in Paris. I'll stop there but will tell you I enjoyed her forays at culinary school - some very funny episodes, particularly her description of competitive classmates' anal behavior.
This book has it all, love, comedy, sex, philosophy, politics - just when you think you know where the story is going, ding, ding, ding! Some other subplot jolts you and you're left wondering, now where did THAT come from??
I would have given this four stars but I found the ending slightly unsatisfactory.
January 10, 2010
I loved the main character Canela - a Mexican-American writer from L.A. She broke off her engagement with her fiance - a surgeon - and used the honeymoon ticket to Paris to "escape". Planning only a brief visit she meets up with a college friend Rosemary. They both stay in the Honeymoon suite at the hotel. Rosemary convinces Canela to stay in Paris with her in her tiny apartment. Canela wanted to stay in Paris longer and learned if she entered a prestigious cooking school - Le Coq Rouge - she could remain in Paris for at least a year. Her adventure begins making new friends, trying new things plus learning to cook!
In the epilogue, the author wrote, "Everything is about food and hunger, whether it is hunger for the body or hunger for the soul."
"I have plenty of beautiful memories and life-inspiring moments to nourish my soul for many lifetimes... I hope this was delicious."
YES, IT WAS DELICIOUS!
But WARNING... sexually explicit at times!
In the epilogue, the author wrote, "Everything is about food and hunger, whether it is hunger for the body or hunger for the soul."
"I have plenty of beautiful memories and life-inspiring moments to nourish my soul for many lifetimes... I hope this was delicious."
YES, IT WAS DELICIOUS!
But WARNING... sexually explicit at times!
June 23, 2010
I was excited to read this book, because Lopez wrote the screenplay for Real Women Have Curves. The protagonist Canela has moments of brilliance - she works tirelessly to fight injustice via activism and her journalism career, and she poignantly describes her experience as the child of undocumented workers in CA. BUT she completely destroys her credibility as a feminist/activist with the ways she describes her sexual exploits. At points it sickened me - the book is about her sensual awakening, via food and sex, and I'm all for it. But she describes these experiences with violent, crass language that sounds like a misogynistic 16-year-old bragging to his pals in the locker room. The parts I most enjoyed were the descriptions of the food, her relationship with her mother, and the anecdotes about her family's experience in CA (which parallels the experiences of Paris' immigrants with whom she comes into contact).
July 3, 2014
I purchased this book at a used book sale because of the title. I am always drawn to books that take place in foreign locations. Added to that was the description on the back cover that mentioned that the main character, Canela, after cancelling her wedding, uses the ticket meant for her honeymoon to travel to Paris and enrolls at a prestigious culinary school. I read this book at the beginning of this year, and only remember that parts of the book, although described by the author's notes as sensual, read as vulgar, and in the real world would be considered raunchy and erotic exhibition. Yes, Canela discovers by the book's end who she is, and what she wants from life, but her journey, from my viewpoint, demeaned her. I would have only given this one star, but the culinary school descriptions against the backdrop of Paris resulted in two stars. Now I have to decide what to do with this used book...perhaps the recycling bin?
January 8, 2010
Too much sex, not enough substance. Overall Josephina Lopez came across as a little whiny and not engaged enough in her own life to really make for interesting reading. If I'd wanted to read mostly about sex I'd have read a romance novel and, undoubtedly, gotten better sex scenes. Since I didn't, I'd have preferred much less sex and a lot more insight. The central question of the book seems to be "why didn't the protagonist want to marry the apparently perfect man?" She never answers it very satisfactorily, nor is her exploration of the question interesting enough to make the substance of the journey stand on its own even without an answer. Don't waste your time.
December 11, 2009
This book is ridiculous. It's not well written, and I'm not really enjoying the contect...other than the main character is attending culinary school, which is a big draw for me. I think I'll finish it to get through to the end of her studies at le Coq Rouge (a la le Cordin Bleu), but I'll skip the parts that involve her having sex with random men at swingers clubs. This author is so random. Holes, holes everywhere.
I couldn't bring myself to finish this piece of crap. I would not recommend this to anyone...ever.
I couldn't bring myself to finish this piece of crap. I would not recommend this to anyone...ever.
August 4, 2012
I actually found this book to be a rather poignant example of a woman experiencing the upheaval of emotion and personal crisis that losing loved ones, literally and figuratively, can cause. The author touches on so many subjects, from cultural inequality to cuisine, with a large amount of honesty and self-introspection. It may be an overly-done subject type of late, with the heroine fleeing to an exotic location and delving into food and sex, but really, this is an archetype of so many imaginations and realities, it does have a place.
December 16, 2009
Was there no editor? Did no one outside of the "Wow, good job w/RWHC, you're a Chicana superstar" circle bother to read this and tell her...NO. I should like this book. I should LOVE this book, in fact. But the writing is just not there. I'll leave at that for the moment and return w/a better explanation of why this was just TRAGIC in my eyes.
July 29, 2009
Good read about a 29-year-old Chicana woman who escapes from Los Angeles to Paris after breaking off her marriage engagement, trying to satisfy her hunger for sex, food, friends, acceptance and life.
December 18, 2012
Reviewed by: Bela M.
Member of Livin' la vida Latina
Review: Let me start off by stating what little I liked about this book. First of all, the main character's name was Canela. What a fun name! Canela, which means "cinnamon" (Brown and sweet). The story started out with Canela at her favorite cousin's funeral. I liked how the whole family function turned into an all-out brawl right in the middle of it. Lopez brought out an authentic Mexican flavor to her charcters in this scene. It was funny and witty.
The story started taking a slow turn when Canela decides to go to Paris because she called off her engagement. At first, her reason for leaving was to use the tickets she bought for her honeymoon; but, then, her decision to stay was a little anti-American with the following quote: "I hate my life. I hate the war. I hate what is happening to the U.S., and I just can't go back." (pg. 25) Okay, take a chill pill, girl! Sometimes this story got way too political for my taste.
And sometimes Canela was just a coward to me. I mean, fleeing the country because you don't want to face your mother with the truth? C'mon! Although we all can understand the desire to run away from work, family, life--the world! But, sooner or later, you're going to have to come back and face what you ran away from.
The imagery of Paris was described beautifully and eloquently. However, this still did not compensate for the writer being too graphic with the sex scenes. I was so grossed out by most of them. I can't even tell you a little bit about it. Yuck! Also, she outlined the cooking so much that I often skipped these parts. I also thought that there were too many characters that you don't really care about. In all honesty, I didn't really care about Canela either.
All in all, this book was all about food and sex--no story whatsoever. It was a grave dissapointment. Lopez should really stick to screenplays.
Member of Livin' la vida Latina
Review: Let me start off by stating what little I liked about this book. First of all, the main character's name was Canela. What a fun name! Canela, which means "cinnamon" (Brown and sweet). The story started out with Canela at her favorite cousin's funeral. I liked how the whole family function turned into an all-out brawl right in the middle of it. Lopez brought out an authentic Mexican flavor to her charcters in this scene. It was funny and witty.
The story started taking a slow turn when Canela decides to go to Paris because she called off her engagement. At first, her reason for leaving was to use the tickets she bought for her honeymoon; but, then, her decision to stay was a little anti-American with the following quote: "I hate my life. I hate the war. I hate what is happening to the U.S., and I just can't go back." (pg. 25) Okay, take a chill pill, girl! Sometimes this story got way too political for my taste.
And sometimes Canela was just a coward to me. I mean, fleeing the country because you don't want to face your mother with the truth? C'mon! Although we all can understand the desire to run away from work, family, life--the world! But, sooner or later, you're going to have to come back and face what you ran away from.
The imagery of Paris was described beautifully and eloquently. However, this still did not compensate for the writer being too graphic with the sex scenes. I was so grossed out by most of them. I can't even tell you a little bit about it. Yuck! Also, she outlined the cooking so much that I often skipped these parts. I also thought that there were too many characters that you don't really care about. In all honesty, I didn't really care about Canela either.
All in all, this book was all about food and sex--no story whatsoever. It was a grave dissapointment. Lopez should really stick to screenplays.
July 15, 2013
I really hated this book. I went into it thinking it would, at the very least, be a fun summer-read (much as some here have likened it to Eat, Pray, Love at first glance), but it actually had convoluted themes which didn't make much sense, as if the author couldn't make up her mind what to focus on. I agree that the sex scenes were VERY gratuitous and really unnecessary, since the story wasn't initially set up to make us believe that the main character was in dire need of a sexual awakening. And in terms of the protagonist (if you even want to call her that), I thought she came off as not likeable and hollow (when I say "hollow," I mean there wasn't much to her even though we're initially led to believe there might be). Her "struggles" came off as generic and contrived, especially since it doesn't seem like she came to any definitive or noteworthy conclusions by the end of her "journey."
There was minimal character growth or even plot development--everything just felt really banal and one-dimensional. The book's final scene especially bothered me, because it felt like the author was desperately attempting to tack on depth and meaning at the last minute (she wasn't even remotely successful in doing so). Even by chic-lit standards, I think this book is abhorrent. I'm actually amazed I finished it, but with each passing page I was just praying it would get better. It definitely didn't.
There was minimal character growth or even plot development--everything just felt really banal and one-dimensional. The book's final scene especially bothered me, because it felt like the author was desperately attempting to tack on depth and meaning at the last minute (she wasn't even remotely successful in doing so). Even by chic-lit standards, I think this book is abhorrent. I'm actually amazed I finished it, but with each passing page I was just praying it would get better. It definitely didn't.
August 25, 2009
While I was quite interested because I absolutely love 'Real Women Have Curves,' I was disappointed. I felt there was a lot of disconnect in the story, and certainly a lot of tangents. I was interested in the story because it seemed to be about what a lot of Mexican-American women have to go through-the pressure to get married, the pressure to have kids, the pressure to put your family and everyone else first before yourself-and I definitely wanted to finally see it in writing that some of us don't agree with that, and what some women have to confront in order to put themselves first. And while there were glimpses of that, I don't think the story was developed enough to give that part strength. I was also bothered by the political commentary. While yes, I also shared her views, I felt there was flimsy relevance to the story. It was almost as if it was put in there for shock value.
I really hope that Josefina Lopez reevaluates the beauty of 'Real Women Have Curves,' and comes up with something better.
I really hope that Josefina Lopez reevaluates the beauty of 'Real Women Have Curves,' and comes up with something better.
August 15, 2012
I am only on page 15 and I already don't like this book. Maybe her family is this dramatic, but it seems she is just exaggerating to make her characters fit this typical latina stereotype, and as a hispanic woman myself, all I am doing is rolling my eyes instead of relating to them.
I am now on page 116 and sad to say this book has only become worse. Here is a sentence from the book to prove this, "I'm a migratory soul and, like a maxipad, my soul had wings." After reading that I couldn't help but put the book down to have a good laugh with myself about this ridiculous writing.
Throughout this book the author likes to drop small sexual remarks that seem very surprising at first. The beginning of the book doesn't mention anything sexual, then out of nowhere around pg 60 the character starts talking about her "wet vagina". Then as you progress through the book she litters the story with meaningless and terribly written sexual encounters. This author obviously does NOT know how to write sex.
I am now on page 116 and sad to say this book has only become worse. Here is a sentence from the book to prove this, "I'm a migratory soul and, like a maxipad, my soul had wings." After reading that I couldn't help but put the book down to have a good laugh with myself about this ridiculous writing.
Throughout this book the author likes to drop small sexual remarks that seem very surprising at first. The beginning of the book doesn't mention anything sexual, then out of nowhere around pg 60 the character starts talking about her "wet vagina". Then as you progress through the book she litters the story with meaningless and terribly written sexual encounters. This author obviously does NOT know how to write sex.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2017
Where to begin ... if I could give this 0 stars I would. I picked this book up because I enjoy culinary memoirs and thought that, although fiction, it might be entertaining in that vein. But, no, it wasn't.
Instead of "Hungry Woman in Paris" it should be titled "Whiny, Bitter, Self-Absorbed Clueless Adolescent in Paris."
The cardboard characters are moved around as foils for tiresome man-hating, political screeds.
I only continued reading it to hope that the character would somehow grow and develop a measure of maturity and perspective, and stop seeing herself and others as victims of everything and everyone.
The charm and beauty of Paris and the adventure of being in a world-class cooking school are lost in this myopic, poorly-written disaster of a book. Don't even get me started on the awkward gratuitous and decidedly unerotic graphic sex scenes.
Based on this sample, I would not bother reading anything else by this "author," nor seeing another movie she had written.
Abyssmal.
Instead of "Hungry Woman in Paris" it should be titled "Whiny, Bitter, Self-Absorbed Clueless Adolescent in Paris."
The cardboard characters are moved around as foils for tiresome man-hating, political screeds.
I only continued reading it to hope that the character would somehow grow and develop a measure of maturity and perspective, and stop seeing herself and others as victims of everything and everyone.
The charm and beauty of Paris and the adventure of being in a world-class cooking school are lost in this myopic, poorly-written disaster of a book. Don't even get me started on the awkward gratuitous and decidedly unerotic graphic sex scenes.
Based on this sample, I would not bother reading anything else by this "author," nor seeing another movie she had written.
Abyssmal.
June 29, 2015
This book started off so promising.
Canela (main character) is bold, sarcastic, and fed up.
Until, she's not.
She's actually insecure, depressed, suicidal, promiscuous, and a tad selfish.
Within 20 pages all aspects of her relatable personality died away and I was left with a growing sense of discomfort as I lived in Canela's head.
I thought the book would pick up once she started her classes and in a way they did but then the author fell into the trap of a repetitive plot:
Canela takes a class.
Canela talks to a schoolmate.
Canela goes out.
Canela has cheap sex.
Canela feels bad about it.
Rinse and Repeat.
It got to the point that I skipped pages.
When I got to page 164 I'd had enough. I grabbed a handful of pages (68 exactly) and skipped ahead.
This book is not what I thought it would be and I'm annoyed that I wasted so much time on it.
I really try to support my fellow Latinas but this one is straight basura.
I do not recommend it.
Canela (main character) is bold, sarcastic, and fed up.
Until, she's not.
She's actually insecure, depressed, suicidal, promiscuous, and a tad selfish.
Within 20 pages all aspects of her relatable personality died away and I was left with a growing sense of discomfort as I lived in Canela's head.
I thought the book would pick up once she started her classes and in a way they did but then the author fell into the trap of a repetitive plot:
Canela takes a class.
Canela talks to a schoolmate.
Canela goes out.
Canela has cheap sex.
Canela feels bad about it.
Rinse and Repeat.
It got to the point that I skipped pages.
When I got to page 164 I'd had enough. I grabbed a handful of pages (68 exactly) and skipped ahead.
This book is not what I thought it would be and I'm annoyed that I wasted so much time on it.
I really try to support my fellow Latinas but this one is straight basura.
I do not recommend it.
May 27, 2009
This is a passionate book about a woman hungry for change, hungry for acceptance, hungry for identity. She leaves her job, her family, her fiance (at the altar, practically!) and runs off to Paris, where she enrolls in cooking school as a way to stay in the country. In Paris, she learns to cook and to savor life. After a year, she returns home, her family and her fiance. But though she quickly falls into the same old patterns, she soon realizes that only by being true to herself can she feed her body and soul.
December 31, 2014
what I liked about the book was the honesty of the main character (things that could have been overly romanticized were more realistic), her journey/lessons about self- esteem and multiplicity of identities, and the matter of fact way that she talked about issues of depression and suicide. But by the end I was not connecting with the messages the author was trying to convey. Also there were a few significant issues that came up throughout the course of Canela's journey that merited deeper exploration than her almost total lack of reflection gave them - for instance, her view of Muslim women.
July 7, 2009
I thought that this book had the makings to be a great read. The main character Canela breaks us with her fiance and has a falling out with her family after the suicide of her cousin Luna. She goes to Paris using her honeymoon ticket and ends up enrolling in cooking school to help solve her identity crisis.
While the book had some really great elements, it was a bit on the explicit side and I felt that it detracted from the story line.
While the book had some really great elements, it was a bit on the explicit side and I felt that it detracted from the story line.
September 29, 2011
Pretty poor read. Sorry- this author's strength is maybe NF. Not sexy when intended, vaguely vulgar, protaganist is a bit of an insult to latina women, and nothing much is learned or resolved by anyone in this book. It doesn't give me much a feel for Paris, the cooking classes are food failures and not sensual full of more negative stereotypes ( macho israeili, whiney american, aggressive self absorbed professional women, lecherous french teachers) . Why did I read it?
February 12, 2010
This book is not only gratuitously pornographic, it's also extremely poorly written. A friend of mine recommended it and well, I have no idea why. The author is actually an accomplished screenplay writer (Real Women Have Curves) and this reads like a screenplay in a way, pretty choppy. The word choices and sentence structures are just horrendous, I can't say enough bad things about this book!
January 14, 2010
Let's just say neither the title nor the jacket hinted at the true meaning of the hunger. While the book had some explicted paragraphs, over all it was an interesting read. Leaving me with a much different image of being single, hungry and in Paris.
June 16, 2009
This book was entertaining. I enjoyed the cooking details. I would have liked more of the city of Paris to have a role in this book. Some of the sexual escapades just seemed gratuitous, which is not what I expected.
August 7, 2009
After her cousins death Canela breaks off her engagement and moves to Paris. Not knowing what to do she enrolls in a prestigious cooking school. This book reads kind of like an erotic novel. The cooking descriptions were scrumptious however I felt as if the bedroom scenes didn't totally fit in.
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