The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The House on Mango Street is a series of vignettes told by Esperanza, a twelve-year-old Latina girl whose family has just moved into a house in a halfway shady neighborhood. Each vignette takes a chapter, and each chapter is very short, two to three pages with pretty big printing. The structure sounds choppy, but it builds to a surprisingly satisfying whole: characters recur and the vignettes connect back to each other like a series of ribbons knotted together.

I liked it a lot. Not only were the story and the structure interesting, but Esperanza has an excellent voice: believably childish but also clearly growing up. One of my favorite vignettes was a story about a family party. Esperanza had a nice new dress but her mother forgot to get shoes to match, so she sits, miserable, her feet hidden under her chair, refusing to dance because this was not how things were supposed to be.

I iked the scene both because it was so spot on – I did things exactly like that as a child – and because it was presented so empathetically: the understanding that yes, the wrong shoes are that big a deal when you’re twelve, and no smug superiority about silly kids freaking out about small silly things.

So I liked the book very much. I would recommend it to people who like books about children that aren’t necessarily children’s books; people who like books with odd, interesting, elliptical story-telling methods; and, in the Spanish translation, to anyone who reads Spanish semi-fluently and wants to practice.

Comments

[themis.livejournal.com]

I read The House on Mango Street for high school and remember being impressed that my English department had the taste to pick it as an offering of contemporary American literature.

I liked Cisneros' other book, Woman Hollering Creek, a little bit more, though. Maybe because it wasn't about children? I'm not sure.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I haven't read her other book, but it's on my list. Does she really have only one other book? I wish good authors were more prolific.

[themis.livejournal.com]

I think she has more than one other, but they are all poetry?

[gingicat]

Haven't read that; will have to look. I loved her short story collection Woman Hollering Creek; alas, I gave it to a friend who was laid up ill, so I'll have to obtain another copy if I want to review it.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about Woman Hollering Creek, though I haven't read it. I hope your friend enjoyed it.