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I was looking forward to reading “The House on Mango Street.” Something in the title and the cover caught my eye. After I found out how highly the novel is regarded for the realistic portrayal of a Latino community in America, and challenges that come with being part of it, I got really excited. Books, which focus on these experiences, resonate with me as a first-generation immigrant. However, I don’t know many good ones. “The House on Mango Street” had the potential to be a lot more than good, but it fell short in a few areas and left me with mixed feelings instead.
Sandra Cisneros is a poet, who has a beautiful, vivid writing style. It shows in her prose too, where every sentence incorporates a unique rhythm. Cisneros structured the book as a series of vignettes about a Chicana girl in a lower-income neighborhood of Chicago. Each vignette can exist on its own, and there is no traditional plot connecting them. In a foreword the author explains wanting to create a text “as succinct and flexible as poetry” and “as simple and readable as possible,” so it’s easy to understand at any point of the narrative. To achieve that, Cisneros abandons quotation marks and some other punctuation along with detailed references to time and space, doing the opposite – making the reading problematic and less engaging.
While I usually enjoy abstract short stories, bundled together under a common theme, when I pick up a novel, especially a novel announced “modern coming-of-age classic,” I expect a certain storyline, a conflict and deeper characters. “The House on Mango Street” barely has any of these elements and meets the criteria of a novella at best. It feels like a kaleidoscope of people and events that flicker through, disappearing right when you want to take a closer look at what’s going on. Even the protagonist Esperanza remains a stranger until the end. Nevertheless, sharing different moments with her as she figures out life on Mango Street and beyond is very interesting.
Some situations are funny, some are sad. Some are optimistic, some are grim. And all – thought-provoking. Brought up under the strong influence of Mexican culture, but exposed to other opportunities at the same time, Esperanza notices the limitations imposed by a patriarchal society on every woman in her surrounding and dares to break that cycle. Cisneros invites readers to explore the idea of freedom and belonging from Esperanza’s point of view. The theme of establishing oneself during adolescence is dominant throughout the book. The author also gently touches on complex subjects of gender roles, poverty, domestic abuse and violence.
Though The House on Mango Street doesn’t tell a cohesive story and might appear too metaphor-heavy for some, it is still a great read with a powerful message. In a way, its unusual format actually works for the main audience: young adults and their mentors. First will enjoy bite-size chapters, and second can count on livelier discussions. The book introduces harsh realities, yet leaves enough space to dream and hope. “Hope” is what the name Esperanza means in English, and is what Cisneros encourages her readers to see in the world, no matter how difficult things may get.
Find more book recommendations in this section of my blog. Happy reading!