The House on Mango Street in The Dusty Bookshelf

Jan 11, 2014 Gaijinmama rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, latino, books-i-ve-used-in-class

Some of my students have chosen this book for their final reports, but I am a bit ashamed it took me this long to get to it. What a lovely, funny, heartbreaking story.
On the one hand, there are many culturally-specific moments, and more than a few Spanish words in the text. This makes the book a wonderful introduction to Latino culture for those who aren't familiar (like my students here in Japan).
On the other hand, the story is universal. A young girl is growing up, has the usual sort of confli ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2013 Kristina rated it really liked it

The House on Mango Street is a novel about a young Latina girl named Esperanza growing up in a poor Chicago neighborhood. Her story is composed of a set of vignettes that read more like poetry than prose. They don't tell a complete plotted story, rather, they show Esperanza's perceptions of the world around her. She observes everything from her neighbors to her family members to the social mores of her street. While we don't get a story with a clear beginning, middle and end, what we do get is a The House on Mango Street is a novel about a young Latina girl named Esperanza growing up in a poor Chicago neighborhood. Her story is composed of a set of vignettes that read more like poetry than prose. They don't tell a complete plotted story, rather, they show Esperanza's perceptions of the world around her. She observes everything from her neighbors to her family members to the social mores of her street. While we don't get a story with a clear beginning, middle and end, what we do get is a portrait of a girl coming of age and discovering what she wants in life under rather adverse circumstances.

In her introduction to this book, Sandra Cisneros says that she was aiming to write, "a book that can be opened at any page and will still make sense to the reader who doesn't know what came before or comes after." She also omits quotation marks and ignores some of the rules of grammar in the hopes of making each page more smooth and readable. In my opinion, she has succeeded in her goals, because I think the simplicity of this text is its biggest strength. Cisneros has a way of describing events in such a matter of fact way that it causes the reader to stop and think. Negative experiences related this way become especially poignant, such as when Esperanza describes the upper class perspective on her poor neighborhood, saying "Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake." Writing like that makes me examine my own feelings of discomfort when passing through a poor neighborhood. Actually, this novel made me examine my feelings about a lot of things.

The unusual structure of The House on Mango Street may not be for everyone, but if you can get into the flow of the vignettes, this is a wonderful little book. The beautiful, simple writing and keen observations of the narrator make this a thought-provoking and inspirational read.

...more

Like · see review

Dec 29, 2010 Suey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Quaint little book that looks at life on street in the city filled with all sorts of interesting people.

Like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Casey rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: love-for-reading-starts-at-birth, wannabe-serious-lit

I thought this woud be different and interesting. Well, it was different. For whatever reason, the writing felt like a poor facsimile of Jeanette Winterson, without any of the wit or insight. ...more

Like · see review