Swift as Desire: A Novel

By Laura Esquivel

As the millions of fans of Like Water for Chocolate know, Laura Esquivel is a romanticist whose novels explore the power of love and the truths of the human heart. She returns to those themes in Swift as Desire, the story of a loving and passionate man who has the gift of bringing happiness to everyone except his own wife.

The hero of this novel is Júbilo Chi, a telegraph operator who is born with the ability to “hear” people’s true feelings and respond to their most intimate, unspoken desires. His life changes forever the day he falls deeply and irrevocably in love with Lucha, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy family. She believes money is necessary to insure happiness, while for Júbilo, who is poor, love and desire are more important than possessions. But their passion for each other enables them to build a happy life together -- until their idyll is shattered by a terrible event that drives them bitterly apart. Only years later, as Júbilo lies dying, is his daughter able to unravel the mystery behind her parents’ long estrangement and bring about a surprising reconciliation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 27, 2002
• ISBN: 9781400033263

Laura Esquivel

Laura Esquivel was born in Mexico City in 1950. Her first novel, Like Water for Chocolate, has sold more than four and a half million copies around the world and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year. She currently lives in Mexico.

Reviews for Swift as Desire

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lluvia is caring for her father, a former telegraph operator who is now struggling with ill health, and wonders what happened to make her parents' marriage fall apart. Flashbacks show how her parents moved from a passionate love to a cold separation, with many factors like class, money, work, alcohol, etc. all leading to the end of their marriage.Probably like many others, my first introduction to Esquivel's work was Like Water for Chocolate and I was intrigued by the prospect another magical realism title from her. However, despite the promise of magical realism introduced at the beginning of this book, that fizzled out pretty quickly and it became a story about a marriage lacking good communication and falling apart. It was a good character study but not what I was expecting. While generally I do like a story that is more character driven than plot driven, it seemed that Lluvia's father was the nominal 'good guy' and I felt like he wasn't necessarily such a great guy. It's set in the past so there's a modicum of sense to how he's presented, but there was just a bit too much of machismo elements like 'my wife shouldn't work' that I didn't care for. So it was hard for me to really become super invested in his story.That being said, Esquivel's writing style continues to remain beautiful and evocative. The audiobook narrator here also did a lovely job.

[laurenaileen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Swift as Desire focuses on Lluvia, a middle aged mother desperately trying to replay her entire life in order to understand her parents’ mutual anger for one another. Júbilo, her father, was born with an unmatched ability to communicate and understand through feeling rather than words, but is now confined to a bed and unable to speak due to Parkinson’s. Lluvia’s mother Lucha was a privileged beauty who gave up everything in order to marry Júbilo, but has now become cold and calculating. The story finds Lluvia desperate to understand her parents’ past and reconcile them before her father’s imminent death.The story skips around in time, leaving the reader on edge throughout the entire book. The characters develop smoothly, and leave a deep impression. Nothing is as it seems with the family, which makes an unforgettable read. If readers are looking for another Like Water for Chocolate, they won’t find it here. Instead, they will find a brutally honest look into the closed doors of a marital relationship and a couple falling apart. It should be noted that the characters are both loveable and hateable- sometimes simultaneously! If you can get past their (sometimes) annoying exteriors, some good can be found in all.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A tribute to her telegraph operator father, Esquivel's novel about Jubilo, gifted with the ability to hear more than just the words that people say, and his wife and daughter, this doesn't compare to her famous Like Water for Chocolate. Jubilo lies blind, incapacitated by severe Parkinson's Disease and dying. His daughter Lluvia, in whose home he is, brings his friends in to try and entertain her father and in so doing, uncovers the reason why her two very passionate parents haven't been speaking to each other since before her birth. Jubilo and Lucha led a turbulent life with each other, complicated by the fact that Jubilo's second sense about people failed him at crucial times with his wife. The story of Jubilo's life, especially after meeting Lucha, is alternated with his present and his daughter's careful caretaking. Uncovering the mystery that drove her parents apart and helping them to repair their hearts before Jubilo dies is part of what drives Lluvia as she bustles around her father's bedside. Unfortunately the writing here is choppy and lackluster and it takes a real effort for the reader to continue along with the storyline. The mystery itself isn't alluded to until quite a ways into the story and still isn't compelling enough to make the pages turn quickly. Lucha as a character is a rotten, whiny, spoiled brat and there's little to no explanation as to why she would be so appealing to Jubilo and to other men around her. Jubilo as a character is gifted with his almost magical powers (more a heightened sensitivity) and yet Esquivel doesn't choose to show him using this intuition much at all and refers to it most only when it fails him, which makes his character feel more allegorical than real. There are plot lines that seem as if they should be major themes but they peter out for lack of life. All in all, this was a disappointment.

[julieq_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

An okay novel about love and understanding through communication. Júbilo is a telegraph operator with the ability to read/see and interpret other people's thoughts and feelings. Júbilo realizes that this is a gift tthat will help to make peoples lives better and drastically improves the relationship between his mother and paternal grandmother. Unfortunately, his gift did not always work in his favor as is apparent in his relationship with his wife which is steamy yet has its moments of turbulence. The book has many slow parts that made it hard for me to continue reading, it took me almost a full week and its only 200 pages.