The House on Mango Street by Sandra CisnerosMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero.
Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.
Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.
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I came across this book as part of my MA degree in Creative Writing, examining spiral narratives in fiction, and I ended up using this book as inspiration for my spiralling narrative poem.
Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza, a young Latina girl, as she grows up, using a series of vignettes as the structure. As I was reading this with the structure in mind, I was particularly aware of the patterns and how the vignettes were structured. Every time the story started to reach out, covering more ground, it then shrank back again, focusing on Em once more, before the story starts reaching out again.
This book covers a lot of topics as it examines how different people live, and there is a content warning for sexual assault. But, more than that, it's a book about life. As a white reader, I felt my eyes were opened a lot.
This is a extremely well written book. The craft is simply beautiful. Several times, I found myself re-reading pages simply because of the language. It's just amazing. So heartfelt and raw and poignant.
Everyone should read this book.
View all my reviews
I came across this book as part of my MA degree in Creative Writing, examining spiral narratives in fiction, and I ended up using this book as inspiration for my spiralling narrative poem.
Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza, a young Latina girl, as she grows up, using a series of vignettes as the structure. As I was reading this with the structure in mind, I was particularly aware of the patterns and how the vignettes were structured. Every time the story started to reach out, covering more ground, it then shrank back again, focusing on Em once more, before the story starts reaching out again.
This book covers a lot of topics as it examines how different people live, and there is a content warning for sexual assault. But, more than that, it's a book about life. As a white reader, I felt my eyes were opened a lot.
This is a extremely well written book. The craft is simply beautiful. Several times, I found myself re-reading pages simply because of the language. It's just amazing. So heartfelt and raw and poignant.
Everyone should read this book.
View all my reviews
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