The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

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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..

~Amazon.com

The Facts

Page Number: 110 pages
Publisher: Vintage
Language: Spanish, English
Date Published: 1984
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult, Literature, Poetry, Diverse Literature
Awards: George C. Stone Center for Children’s Books Recognition of Merit Award (1994)

My Thoughts

Like many of the hyped up books that I haven’t read yet, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros was a book that some English classes in my high school read; I just didn’t happen to be in those classes. I’ve always meant to read it, but another book on my pile always seemed more pressing. This past weekend, I hit a reading block and struggled with which book to pick up. This one seemed smaller and a bit less intimidating, so I brought it with me down to the pool.

This book, told in a series of short 1- to 2-page vignettes was absolutely lovely, and perfect for my distracted, difficult-to-focus-on-anything-for-more-than-five-minutes, brain. While each vignette feels light and floaty, the messages they they convey about growing up, how women are treated, growing up poor in a big city, perception of people of a different race, and friendship are anything but. I have been reading more and more texts that center on diverse cultures and characters, and this book is clearly a classic of this genre. Frankly, with all of the racial stripe that has been erupting here in the US (and in the rest of the world), the questions that this book raises make is a useful and contemporary read. Cisneros was able to express ideas about the treatment of diversity without sounding preachy or didactic. Overall, a must-read.

I liked:

The form of vignettes.
Esperanza’s frustration with her sister. Her struggle with her feelings toward Nenny felt authentic.
The variety of characters and situations that we meet through Esperanza. We meet the entire neighborhood, and the many struggles that they have to face.

I struggled with:

Esperanza’s descriptions of the abuse, both emotional and physical, that she sees other characters going through. She describes it with a childlike innocence, showing how she really doesn’t understand how wrong this is, and she doesn’t see anyone trying to change it.
When Esperanza’s teacher assumes that she lives in an even poorer neighborhood than she does, and ashamed, she just goes along with it. My heart broke for her.
The house on Mango Street, and why it couldn’t feel more like a home for all of the characters. Why couldn’t it be called The Home on Mango Street?

Rating: 5 Stars

Recommended for…

Someone who enjoys diverse literature, likes vignettes and poetic language, appreciates memoirs of struggle and coming-of-age, does not require full closure, can laugh at a quirky sense of humor, and finds texts that treat very adult issues through a child’s eyes to be intriguing.