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Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER â?˘ A coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the worldâ??from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous-Sandra Cisneros' masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers. â??Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage ... and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.â? â??The New York Times B… (more)
User reviews
Esperanza at a young age sees more than most adults see in their lifetimes. What is endearing about her narrative is the sense of hope she feels about leaving her childhood behind - to move away from Mango Street and do "something" with her life. In the end, though, she realizes that her experiences are part of her, and she'll never, completely, leave it behind. It's how you learn and grow from these circumstances that shape you as a person.
How I missed this book before is a mystery, but I am glad I stumbled upon it. It's a great book for all ages, especially young adults, who may find Esperanza's journey inspirational and relevant to their lives.
I think she succeeded. The book consists of 45 essays or short stories, none more than six pages long. Cisneros said she "wanted to tell a story made up of a series of stories that would make sense if read alone, or that could be read all together to tell one big story, each story contributing to the whole, like beads on a necklace," and that is the case.
The narrator and main character is Esperanza Cordero, who may or may not be Cisneros by her own admission. She says her intention was "to take from different parts of other people's lives and create a story like a collage. I merged characters from my twenties with characters from my teens and childhood." Cisneros reads this book with a voice that sounds like that of a little girl, and it fits the material. Some of the stories are light and funny, some sad and serious. Cisneros also said:
"But best of all, writing in a younger voice allowed me to name that thing without a name, that shame of being poor, of being female, of being not quite good enough, and examine where it had come from and why, so I could exchange shame for celebration"
This definitely comes across in this book. I'm glad I listened to it.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a collection of scenes from a year in the life of Esperanza Cordera, a girl entering her teenage years in a tough Chicago neighborhood. A plotless collection of scenes praised throughout the world
There was a lot of fuss about The House on Mango Street when it first came out in 1984. In no time at all the book was in widespread circulation, used in colleges, high schools, even middle and elementary schools. I found my copy on the high shelf of the book room at school. It's a good book overall. It presents a point of view that was not exactly easy to find in print in 1984. And it's short. It should really be considered a novella at 110 pages, half of them white space. Most of the chapters are less than two pages in length; perfect for literature anthologies. The section called "Bums in the Attic" is in the one my school uses.
I think the shortness of the chapters worked against my reading of the book. So many quick sketches in sequence, a brief scene in one, a character outlined in another, made me begin to question why the author hadn't taken the time to flesh out a genuine plot, even a slice of life plot. Frankly, it began to feel a bit self-indulgent by the end. There really should be more there there.
As for the poetry of the writing which was often discussed back in 1984, I guess so, but I wasn't all that impressed. I felt like I was reading the memoirs of an intelligent young woman writing about people she loved. It's nice that she took the time to share her family with us, but the book did not rise to the level of classic I was led to expect.
Towards the end of the novel some of the women on the block tell Esperanza that she'll always be a part of Mango Street and Mango Street will always be a part of her. I suppose I should read this as a statement about the larger experience of growing up in Chicago's Latino neighborhoods, but even with that in mind I just couldn't buy it. Her family spent just a year on Mango Street. You need to spend more time than that in a place before it becomes a part of you, especially at that age. There just wasn't enough in the book for me to believe that Mango Street could be that meaningful after one year. There will be other streets, other towns, other people. Other books, too. That I felt the author agreed with the women who made this claim just made me suspicious of her. Mango Street? Why is Mango Street so important?
Sometimes a street is just a good place to be from.
The story is actually a series of short stories all narrated by Esperanza (whose name means hope in Spanish) she talks about
So lucky i found this book,i hope every one can read this book and find interesting things later.
Anyway this book is a collection of little narrations that Mr. Humanities calls Vignettes. It's about Esperanza, a girl who grows up in a
The story has a lot of symbols and motifs. Like names, windows... etc. All the women always hang out of windows because their dads or husbands don't let them leave the house (because they are male chauvanist pendejos) and that's their only way to communicate with the outside world. Esperanza doesn't want to be like them, so she tries to ignore all boys and be independent but she's growing up and starts liking boys so she has a little trouble with that. um... anyway.
This book is great...it has a great style of writing and it has classicaly powerful themes in it like gender roles and self-identity and determination. And it'll take you like a day to read it. So you'd better.
Cisneros' prose is beautiful, lyrical, and fragmented, which holds the key to its poetic sound. Effortless in style, the moments of wanting to belong while simultaniously wanting to get out is sure to touch your heart.
The novel describes the way Hispanic women deal with and accept sexual conflict as a part of life. The sexual prowess of men is taken as a fact of life, something the women do not protest or try to understand. Men are men, and women are women.
The men in the book appear and disappear, or abandon. The men are daring, tricking women into kissing or rape them when vulnerable (p. 270). Underage marriage and teenage mother ship runs throughout the book.
The women role is support, and where possible protect each other. Sally's man beats her, and the women dress her bruises (with lard).
The house on Mango Street stands for the reality of Esperanza's life, its dangers but also the familiarity of the cultural setting. Esperanza's dream of another house, are perhaps her longing for greater safety, a different life, although she would find it hard to separate from Hispanic culture.
In some ways, this is a traditional coming-of-age story. But it is the style in which the book is written that makes it unique. Cisneros is a poet. It took me a few chapters to figure out that this book should be read like poetry, slowly, savoring the rhythm, the words, the complexity of the feelings conveyed. Iâm searching for the perfect passage to illustrate this. Maybe this one, from near the end of the book, will do:
âWe didnât always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to.â
This is a short book filled with feeling. Definitely worth the read.