FICTION

SENORA HONEYCOMB by Fanny Buitrago, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Sayers Peden (HarperCollins: $18; 232 pp.). How long has it been since you read a novel that says sex is not only good for you--not abusive, not addictive, not a hazard to your health--but positively yummy? Quite a while, probably. If so, Buitrago’s Colombian confection--complete with a cooking and gardening guide at the end--may be just the spice your life needs. It’s a fairy tale about a provincial girl, Teodora Vencejos, who plays both the Cinderella role (inheriting a fortune her godmother has hidden from her) and the Sleeping Beauty role (falling into a swoon when she finds that her womanizing husband, Galaor de Ucros, has married her only for her money). As for the prince, the two candidates for that role seem unsuited. One is Galaor, the other is Dr. Manuel Amiel, Teodora’s boss, who does love her but turns cuisine into pornography and obliges her to pay off her debt to him in kisses and caresses. Teodora, a life force if there ever was one, liberates herself sexually and otherwise as Buitrago blends into the recipe a generous dose of social satire and anti-machismo.