By Cheryl Klein
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Some books just make you wish for a time machine. Though few
would want to travel to the bleak futures created by George Orwell
or Ray Bradbury, there would be plenty of passengers vying for a
trip to Laura Esquivel’s version of 23rd century Mexico City.
"The Law of Love," the newest novel by "Like Water for
Chocolate" author Laura Esquivel, is a colorful take of a future
that is exciting without being horrific, and beautiful without
being utopian. Esquivel herself comes to 20th century Los Angeles
to speak and sign books tomorrow in the newly reopened Powell
Library.
Richard McBryer, buyer for Bookzone, is proud that UCLA will
play host to Esquivel. He feels that her second novel proves both
strength and versatility, bringing out the true potential of the
magic realism genre.
"This book has almost taken (magic realism) to another level and
folded in current interest in new age and past lives, soul mates
and all that stuff that’s current in many areas, not just fiction,"
McBryer says. "It’s a different book for her which really speaks
well for her as a writer, not trying to do ‘Like Water for
Chocolate Two.’"
While "Chocolate" gained fame as a seductive love story with
recipes as a bonus, "The Law of Love" is a sci-fi fantasy with a
complementary compact disk (CD) tucked between the last page and
the back cover.
Love is still very much a motif though. In a world where
guardian angels work to keep their assigned humans on a path to
universal harmony, the Law of Love reigns supreme. Or at least it
tries to.
The Law of Love states that "the person who causes an imbalance
in the cosmic orders is the only one who can restore balance." The
story follows Azucena Martinez, an astro-analyst who makes a living
helping others come to terms with their past lives (which, at this
point in time can be called up at the flicker of a computer screen)
but is too impatient to look in depth at her own, which is the only
way she can put her soul at peace.
Esquivel says that she saw a setting in which characters were
aware of previous lives as a way of communicating love and empathy
for others.
"The great part of my belief started with the concept of love. I
hope that people knowing more about themselves will make for a more
harmonious world," Esquivel says. "I believe in the capacity of
self-transformation, the ability to improve oneself."
All the main characters must transform somehow in order to reach
the society’s ultimate goal – to be united with their twin soul,
the perfect date worth waiting thousands of years for. Azucena
learns early on that her twin soul is Rodrigo, a man who in one
life was her rescuer, in another her killer. Also traveling through
the progression of lives with them is Isabel, the story’s
unscrupulous candidate for Planetary President, and Citlali,
Rodrigo’s love interest.
In the 1500s Rodrigo is a brutal Spanish conquistador who rapes
Citlali, then an Indian slave whose swaying hips send invisible
vibes through the air. But justice is served a few centuries later
when Rodrigo is a young woman raped by none other than Citlali, her
brother-in-law.
But the point is not revenge. Rather, Rodrigo and Citlali
experience both what it is like to feel powerless and violated, and
what it is like to have one’s hormones overtake the entire self.
The idea of this cross-incarnational karma offers an interesting
explanation to the age-old query of, "Why do bad things happen to
good people?"
Role reversing and body switching (Azucena’s solution when
someone goes and inconveniently shoots her) make for intriguing
character interactions but a confusing plot. Still, Esquivel feels
that knowledge of past lives would bring more benefits than
confusion.
"I think society would be more tolerant," Esquivel says.
"Knowledge of the self makes us more tolerant of others, which
would bring more harmony to the world … We live in a world where
we reject another person because he’s not our race or religion. I
wanted to talk about those things that join, not separate."
Esquivel does much of this in "The Law of Love," but it is not
the philosophical observations that make the novel so much fun to
read. It is the likeable, hopelessly human characters – even those
who aren’t human. Anacreonte, Azucena’s guardian angel, is
frustrated at her stubbornness and laments that he can’t spend more
time with his guardian angel girlfriend (who eventually runs off
with a demon). Azucena is easy to relate to and is not thrown in
merely to observe society, the way some sci-fi characters seem to
be.
"The Law of Love" is infused with many humorous tidbits about
the 23rd century. Sure, there’s the usual – space travel and world
wide government, but this is also a place where African violets
behave like stray kittens, chocolate is an illegal drug, and one’s
most useful tool is a cybernetic Ouija board. The earth of the
2200s may be connected with the heavens, but it is still laughably
bureaucratic; Azucena waits and waits in line to request her twin
soul’s address at a place conspicuously like the Department of
Motor Vehicles. It’s also amusing to note that the Spanish-language
talk show "Cristina" is still going strong, along with "Oprah",
"Sally Jesse Raphael" and "Donahue."
"There is a playfulness to it," McBryer says. "For balancing all
the themes and everything she’s tried to put into this novel, it’s
very lightly conveyed."
To even better illustrate the adventures of Azucena and the
other characters, Esquivel has put in a CD with songs corresponding
to the ones Azucena listens to to provoke memory flashbacks. Of
course it’s not always practical to keep a CD player in your
backpack when reading during a break between classes, but the
mournful operas and upbeat folk songs make good background music
even when not played during their corresponding chapters.
"Since the book is about emotions like love, I wanted to find a
vehicle where the readers could participate not with their
intellect, but with their emotions," Esquivel says. "The music
gives them a sensory experience where they can hear and see what
the characters were, to be like accomplices in the story."
Readers can catch a glimpse of the characters’ regressions in
the dusky colored sketches that are inserted, comic-strip style
through out the book. And if they wait a little longer they can get
the complete sensory experience on the big screen.
"A movie is already being negotiated," Esquivel says. "I
actually wrote the book with a movie in mind. But it will be very
different from the book because a novel can treat things like
emotions subtly. The film won’t be able to do that, but it can
create great visual things on the technological side of it.
If the movie can capture the same lighthearted magic of the
novel, it’s headed for good reviews.
"The Law of Love" tackles the meaning of life and comes up with
very satisfying answers that aren’t too preachy. It isn’t
surprising that Esquivel’s visit to UCLA is so highly
anticipated.’
"The way it’s going now with someone as hot as Laura Esquivel is
that every store in town, big or small, wants her to talk or sign
books," McBryer says. After all, books like "The Law of Love" don’t
pop up every lifetime.
BOOK: Laura Esquivel will be at Powell Library
tomorrow at 4 p.m. to read passages from "The Law of Love," answer
questions and sign books.