Of sensuality and seduction
Mohammad Shahidul Islam enjoys a tale of Latin beauty
29 February 2008, 18:00 PM
The Lady, The Chef, And The Courtesan
Marisol
Rayo Roma
Books about lost love and sacrifice are always available to readers. There are also books about one generation passing on its secrets and lessons to another. There are books about making decisions that can change the track of one's entire life. Marisol's The Lady, The Chef And The Courtesan mirrors all these topics, but does so with such warmth and élan that a reader forgives its familiarity and just loses himself in the book.
According to a Latin American proverb with which the novel opens, in order for a woman to discover her power over men, she must learn to be a lady in the living room, a chef in the kitchen, and a courtesan in the bedroom. After perfecting the grace and elegance of each, a woman will in the end understand her own potential in life, and the command she has over everyone around her, including herself. The book marvels at this main philosophy of woman's life success.
South American women give the impression of possessing a self-confidence and elegant beauty that makes them tempting to men, and a comprehensive mystery to other women. Could it be that they have purely been born with good genes? Or is it something else - a deeper secret passed down through generations that gives power to Latin women and gives them the ability to discover and rejoice at their sensuality and womanliness?
Pilar Castillo, the protagonist, is twenty-six years old, and rapt between two dissimilar cultures. She was born in Venezuela, but now resides in Chicago, where she has learned to live by herself. She takes pleasure in her job as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, and she dates an all-American photographer named Patrick Russo. Yet her mother heartily frowns on her choices - both in living, and in men. She is expected to come back home to be with her family, and to marry Rafael Uslar, a conceited and flirtatious individual. And all this notwithstanding the fact of the successful lawyer that she was once engaged to.
What is a woman to do when she is being dragged in so many directions? Advice and salvation appear in the form of three leather-bound volumes: her grandmother's diaries which incorporate her life and brim with many words of wisdom. Pilar's grandmother, Gabriela, trusts in the old proverb that states, "A woman must be a lady in the living room, a chef in the kitchen, and a courtesan in the bedroom". By sharing her own experiences, Gabriela imparts to Pilar the real secrets to being the typical Latin woman, and perhaps the most significant lesson of all --- that a woman should always trail her heart.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from reading this book, and although the advice may sound dated at times - "a husband wandering around the kitchen could signify only one thing: his wife had failed miserably in her duties" - it also offers a refreshingly open look at relationships, and the gender roles that many of us still play in our daily lives.
The gorgeous language, the recipes, the underlying eroticism all unite together to make this book seem like a magical secret digest. Parts of many of the conversations are a key to finding the beautiful woman inside all of us. The Lady, The Chef And The Courtesan is written in a classy manner, and is full of wit, charm and insight into a culture that still seems to be frozen in another time. Weaving together the story of a modern woman with that of a grandmother's time-honoured traditions, The Lady, the Chef, and the Courtesan is a convincing novel of history, seduction, love -- and what it strictly means to be a woman.
Mohammad Shahidul Islam graduated in English from Chittagong University and is in the tourism industry.
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