Customer Reviews

Hungry Woman in Paris

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I won this book in a giveaway and hoped it would be one of those "journey to self-discovery" books, filled with poignant scenes of Paris and the culinary world. I'm extremely disappointed to say that if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere.
The world of hispanic/latino literature has enough uphill battles to climb without producing sludge like this.
The author apparently is unable to fashion anything more grammatically complex than a simple subject-verb-object sentence, and the subject of every sentence is "I". The poignant scenes? Pointless sexual encounters that do nothing to advance the plot or give insight into characters.
Spend your money on something else. The world has enough of this tripe.

What a rip-off! This is sold as the adventures of a Mexican American woman studying cooking at the finest culinary school in the world. Instead, it is the ramblings of a neurotic, self-focused, low-class moron and her hard-core sexual couplings. So poorly written, it is a mystery how any publisher could publish it. I can't wait to get it off my Kindle.

I was excited to recieve this book for Mother's day, but when I read it, I saw that the writing is juvenile, at best, and I'm not really sure how this author got published. My hint should have been on the front cover where it says, "Honest and wise" -- Los Angeles Times on Real Women Have Curves, NOT on Hungry Woman in Paris.
Save your money and buy another book.

Josefina Lopez may be a brilliant screenwriter but her fiction, to put it frankly, sucks. A Hungry Woman in Paris definitely had potential, but the promising plot is ruined by weak, juvenile, clumsy writing. The characters are more caricatures of chicanos than real people - none of them are endearing, not even the heroine herself. Also, what could have been an "erotic tour of Paris" was worse than stale. The perfunctory descriptions of romance left me disgusted. What I hated most about the book were the commentaries on the Iraq War. While I completely sympathize with Lopez's views in this book and thought exactly the same during the time period in which this novel is set, even my most private and jumbled thoughts were more eloquent that the poorly constructed sentences she has plopped onto page after page.

This book should have never been printed, and had Lopez and her editors not been trying to tag along from with the success of "Real Women Have Curves," I'm sure it never would have been published.

I was excited about this book given its "Real Women" credentials. The writing is terrible, the characters are forgettable, the story is incoherent, the sex vulgar. I felt the author tried, and miserably failed, to create something similar to "Like Water for Chocolate." Imagine my surprise when she actually mentions that novel in her own flaccid tale. The author was interviewed on NPR's Latino USA and I was embarrassed for her when she said much of the story was autobiographical. It's her first novel, I hope she can fall back on her diploma from Le Cordon Bleu because I can't imagine she'll have a long literary career.

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 in the detail that Lopez chose to write about. 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.

Ms. Lopez, like her main character Canela, lived in Paris and studied at the renowned culinary school, hence I expected a gourmet meal. What was offered, instead, was a prepackaged meal with push-button ideas and over-salted sex. The chapter titles were, however, clever and tasty.

Following the death of her favorite cousin, Canela breaks off her engagement to her handsome Latino doctor fiance and runs away to France, where she enrolls in the world-famous Coq Rouge cooking school. She takes cooking classes during the day; then at night she entertains herself by hooking up with different people. She has sex with a classmate...an instructor...a classmate AND an instructor...a random couple in a Parisian sex club.... She does this in excruciating detail; even when she's not having sex she likes to talk about her "[...]." Finally she returns to the United States where she meets up again with her ex-fiance. I won't tell you what happens, because it's the one thing remotely (and I do mean remotely) resembling a plot twist in this clunker of a novel, but I will say it's not worth struggling through almost 300 pages to get there.

Josefina Lopez wrote (co-wrote?) "Real Women Have Curves," which is a justifiably acclaimed movie. That's why I picked up this book, despite the bad reviews. Sadly, this first novel has the barest semblance of a plot, a really annoying protagonist, no humor and is clumsily written. I cannot wait to get this piece of dreck back to the library.

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.

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.