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Dec 16, 2009

Liz rated it:

Through the main storyteller Celaya, Cisneros has created an epic Chicana novel that deals with issues of laguage, class, race, gender, family, and being on the border of two cultures. She also brings into consideration the issue of truth-telling versus story-telling. Are they mutually exclusive? If the story is a lie should it matter? These issues only make the story more thought provoking.

My favorite aspect of the book is that it deals with the formation of the young female identi More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2010

Emily rated it:

This book was definitely worthwhile, but Cisneros seems to have been a bit overwhelmed by the task of composing an entire novel. She has many, many gorgeous lines strewn about the book tied to swift dialogue and gripping mini-stories, interrupted by simply cute moments, but the plot and her point are rather blurry if not craggy. She seems to be able to create enough momentum for a certain scene, but she doesn't give much reason for what all the scenes have in common. And while it is an obviou More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2008

Sonja rated it:

One of my top favorite books of all times. And not because Latina discourse is The Thing right now; I think most people never really get past the first 50 pages (including those academics who should know better) because it's challenging and -- I believe -- helpfully marginalizing to the Anglophone reader. The plot is circuitous, anti-teleological, and thoroughly rasquache in the political sense of the term. This could be the best Chicana novel, defining the new Chicano experience, a perspective More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

May 10, 2007

April rated it:

Just what you'd expect from Cisneros--vivid language that leaves you with fragments of flavors, colors, sounds, and sensations. You travel to and from Chicago, Mexico, and San Antonio with the characters and you grow to love them along the way. What I didn't like was the ongoing metafictional conversation between the narrator and the grandmother about memory and facts, and how they are altered for the greater truth of the story. Why do authors writing autobiographical novels feel the need to jus More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2010

Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ rated it:

Tahun 2009 kemarin, saia terpesonakan oleh buku² dari penulis perempuan (berdarah) India. Ada Arundhati Roy, Citra Banerjee Divakaruni, Bharati Mukherjee, Kiran Desai, dan Jhumpa Lahiri. yang membuat saia terpesona dengan karya² mereka adalah mereka berhasil menulis dengan gaya perempuan yang khas, cara bertutur yang feminim, lembut, meliuk-liuk dan halus. Sampai saat ini bahkan saia tak bisa menemukan gaya kepenulisan selembut mereka. penulis Amerika Jodi Picoult mungkin bisa dibandingkan, tapi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2011

Dominic rated it:

Caramelo is a most unusual book. It is part-memoir, part-fiction, part-retelling of The House on Mango Street, and part-dream. Knowing very well what I do of Sandra Cisneros and her generally small body of work, I can never quite tell where the line between Caramelo's main character (Lala Reyes) and Cisneros herself actually is. Several incidents in this novel even mirror Esperanza's tale and those of her poems, muddying even more the line between fact and fiction and more fiction.

W More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2011

Emma rated it:

In keeping with today's theme, I read this book in small bits over a pretty long period of time and as a result it was quite hard for me to get into. Cisneros's vignette-based style, which I loved in The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek, didn't hold up very well for me over the length of this long novel. And I emphasize long: this book is sprawling, but not in a good way, more like in a 'could have used a good editor' way. I actually thought often of The Brief Wondrous Life of Osc More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2008

Gina Gwen rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a long time to read it because I would get through a chapter (all chapters are very short) and have to reminisce about my own personal experiences. Cisneros brings to the forefront issues that many Latinas face. Annoyance of metiche family members and crazy tales they tell, but also a deep love for family. She sprinkled in Spanish words I hadn’t heard in years, that I grew up with but I just don’t hear in Austin. I did realize I am a "Texican"…ha More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Jan rated it:

Reading this book is like gulping a shot of high octane espresso. The writing is incredibly vivid and full of energy, sometimes it leaves you almost breathless. Caramelo is the story of a large Mexican-American family, covering several generations. Told from the point of view of Lala, the youngest daughter, we travel from Mexico City to Chicago and then to San Antonio, Texas. Along the way, we learn the story of Lala's grandparents, parents, and finally Lala herself. This book bursts with l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2007

Jezkah rated it:

If i could give it 10 stars I would. I loved it. Felt like home. Like hot cocoa and a tamal at Cafe Tacuba. I agree with another reviewer here, that the format will make or break it for you. But there is something about that pace, the long and the short, the truth and the better-than-the-truth, that is embedded in not only her writing, but the chicana/mexican culture as well. It doesn't straddle the border--the long road between Chicago and D.F., it is the border. That spot where things come tog More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Hailey rated it:

I spent years avoiding reading Sandra Cisnercos for a number of reasons: I hate her poetry, I don't like that she has two accents, one of which is real and the other affected-- it pisses me off that she always owns every room she walks into. It makes me furious that San Antonio has so embraced her when she isn't even a hometown girl. That being said, I am not really sure why I chose to read this book. I think that I read it because there is some great desperation to connect to San Antonio and More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Evanston Public added it

This humorously dramatic epic tale by Sandra Cisneros titled, “CARAMELO, or, Puro Cuento,” is as sweet as the candy itself, smooth like goat-milk, and light like “the caramelo color of your skin after rising out of the Acapulco foam.” She starts the book by telling us she is continuing her family tradition of telling healthy lies—inventing what she doesn’t know and exaggerating what she does. We follow little “Lala” from the moment she is left out of an important family photo, which lasts throug More...

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Aug 11, 2011

Xochitl rated it:

It is a bit complex for me to write a review about 'Caramelo', because it stirred all the feelings inside of me, leaving no trace of objectivity.

Life is like a telenovela mija, and indeed it is! Specially if you are mexican, because we are unos exagerados, además de metiches y mitoteros.

My grandfather also built the highway to Acapulco, here I had to laugh, and made me wonder how much of my story is true or just a healty lie... Of course I come from one of those families who were a "someo More...

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May 01, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I borrowed Caramelo from the library in order to read it for a book club. I'd read The House on Mango Street years ago for a class, but what little I remember is that I wasn't especially impressed - but then I'm not even entirely sure I didn't just skim the book; it was one of those classes where you could get away with that kind of thing.

Caramelo is the chronicle of several generations of the Reyes family, Mexicans recently transplanted to Chicago. The story is narrated by Celaya (Lal More...

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Jun 25, 2010

Kayla rated it:

Gosh, I'm a huge sucker for books that span over several generations. Add in some fantasy elements and whimsy, and set it in the past? I'm there two weeks before you even suggested it.

I don't really know how to describe this book - it's a fairytale, a cheesy soap opera, a historical novel all wrapped in one. It feels like a conversation. It feels like you're there. I'm not typically one for sugary sweet language or poetic descriptions, but Cisnero is precisely at my limit of enjoymen More...

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Feb 23, 2011

Mary rated it:

This is an incredible book, beautifully crafted in numerous short chapters to mirror the fotonovelas that are beloved by Lala’s dad. Lala, the narrator, tells her story from the vantage point of adulthood. The story begins with her as a young child with the family (mom, dad, Lala and her six brothers) making the annual vacation trip from Chicago to Mexico City to visit the “Awful Grandmother”. Yes, she is awful, hateful, spiteful, petty, etc. to everyone except her firstborn son, Lala’s dad Inno More...

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Feb 25, 2009

Ika rated it:

Cerita intinya itu apa??? itu yang selalu membuat motivasiku maju mundur buat baca ini novel, mau baca karena penasaran klimaksnya apa (yg sampe di halaman paling tengah aku belum menemukannya), tapi disisi lain juga bosen banget sama cerita-cerita yang melebar kemana-mana. nah gimana enggak.novel ini menceritakan tentang masa kecil penulis, Sandra Cisneros, waktu dia tinggal di Meksiko, khususnya tentang betapa kompleksnya hidup dalam kemiskinan di tengah keluarga besar yang sangat patriarkis. More...

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Apr 28, 2009

Misha marked it as to-read

"Tell me a story, even if it's a lie." Simple words standing alone on an otherwise empty page. I like this beginning.

Pg. 21 -- I just finished the part about the father giving away Lala's Bobby doll while she watches, horrified. How is it that parents never understand the attachment that children form to that one special toy? The one that's battered and broken and torn, but is loved intensely not despite of its flaws, but because of them. Mine was "Ellie," a gray More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 13, 2010

Jintana rated it:

แม้จะไม่ค่อยมีความเข้าใจเกี่ยวกับวัฒนธรรมของคนแมกซิกันแต่การอ่านเล่มนี้ทำให้รู้สึกว่าวิถีชีวิตและวัฒนธรรมของเค้าคล้ายกับคนเอเซียอยู่มากในเรื่องของความสัมพันธ์ในครอบครัว เรื่องราวที่เล่าก็สนุกสนานและมีประเด็นให้ต้องขบคิดอยู่ลึก ๆ อยู่หลาย ๆ เรื่อง จะมองให้เป็นแค่เรื่องสนุกก็ได้หรือจะมองให้เป็นปรัชญาก็ได้ เนื่องจากได้ฟังจากเทปเลยทำให้รู้สึกสนุกและอินกับเรื่องมากเพราะบ่อยครั้งที่จะมีภาษาสเปนออกมาซึ่งไพเราะมากในความรู้สึก ทั้งน้ำเสียงของผู้อ่านซึ่งเป็นผู้เขียนด้วยนั้นก็ใส่อารมณ์ได้ดีมากทำให้แม้จะไม่ More...

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Jan 21, 2010

Parissa rated it:

While I have long been a fan of Cisneros' imagery-laced prose, her less-is-more style that gleefully dances on the line between fact and fantasy is perhaps more suited to short stories than full novels. Indeed, at times CARAMELO feels like a collection of short stories rather than a novel-- it's as if a master photographer has decided to make movies. Although the composition is beautiful, it doesn't feel like a smooth, flowing whole.

And then, as if to compensate for the fact that sh More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Amanda rated it:

Reading this text was like slowly chewing my way through a fifteen-layer cake: filled to the brim with stories, rich with cultural details, and sprinkled with bits of Spanish that I could or could not understand. It almost became overbearing at times, since Cisneros gave me so much to imagine and see that my eyes would literally wear out. But I appreciated this about her craft, for this is a writer that uses words to remember. This is a novel that is complex in the way it weaves multiple stor More...

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Aug 03, 2009

Michaela rated it:

I really love Cisneros' narrative technique in this book -- the interplay of fiction and history (complete with footnotes and backstory about the "real" events/people that pepper the novel), the changing viewpoints (Celaya vs. The Awful Grandmother), the jump in time periods (executed so much more creatively than your average flashback), the repetition of themes and words and phrases in a manner that pushes the story forward ("just enough," the girl who can't keep a secret, e More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 08, 2009

Dave rated it:

Many reviews have called Caramelo Cisneros' "epic". They might have a point; though it's not the fact that she writes an epic, but the way in which she constructs it that truly fascinates. Her tale spans two centuries, a heady mix of extended family and phantom historical cameos, and a narrative voice that moves and matures, skipping in a seemingly nonsensical order from anecdote to vignette. In the end, it's not Cisneros' characters with their vague and troubling relationship to a sto More...

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Nov 30, 2011

Alison rated it:

You know how there are those people in your life who you're just so glad to know, to have around, to keep company with? People you truly care about, who make your life a little better for being in it? I really love when I feel that way about characters in a book, like I'm glad I got to know them, glad to have them in my life. And that's how I felt when I finished Caramelo. I am glad to have know these folks, Celaya, the Grandmother, Father, all of them, and of course the bits and threads of Ms. More...

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Aug 18, 2010

Annie rated it:

Sandra Cisneros storytelling ability kept me enthralled throughout the entire novel. Her characters are colorful, funny, poignant, arrogant, sympathetic, judgmental, forgiving and oh so real in their human foibles and triumphs.
I grew up in a family of nine kids and completely related to Lala's experiences as a member of a very large family. I love the family histories recounted by Lala, especially, The Awful Grandmother's story, with interruptions and revisions from The Awful Grandmother More...

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Sep 06, 2011

Bonnie rated it:

Lala (Celaya), the only daughter and youngest child with six older brothers, grows from chilt to adult with the telling of this story that crosses borders and generations, relating the history of her family including a cast of characters such as: Awful Grandmother, Little Grandfather, Aunty Light-Skin, Candelaria (her grandmother's maid's daughter, whose skin resembles the color of caramelo), Uncles Baby and Fat-Face, her mother, Zoila and her father Innocencio, and brothers Rafa, Ito, Tikis, To More...

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Oct 10, 2011

Martina rated it:

I was drawn to this book after reading several sweet and lively short stories by Sandra Cisneros. Also being aware that she is critically acclaimed, I was looking forward to what I thought would be a pleasurable read.

Firstly, I do not necessarily care about plot too much, but this book was extremely lazy and vacillating. The only reason why I kept pushing myself to read it (especially after page 300) was because a lot of reviewers here said that the ending was remarkable.

More...

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Apr 26, 2010

Cv rated it:

This is an epic journey in the life of one girl, Lala, and her immigrant Mexican family. Through her eyes the layers of her family fall away, one by one, and we follow her from preschool to adulthood while we follow her family through several generations through their stories and their actions. Every family has secrets - from outsiders, from each other, from themselves, and yet all these secrets are eventually revealed except the biggest one and in the end only Lala and the reader really under More...

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Aug 17, 2011

dina rated it:

As much as I looked forward to reading this one, it seemed to take me forever to finish it. Maybe it just didn't pull me in in that can't-put-this-down kind of way. Maybe it was the short chapters - or vignettes - that made me feel as though I read more than I really had.

Regardless, Caramelo reminded me of how much I love Cisneros's writing - particularly the way in which she writes and uses dialogue to create a memory or a feeling. Writers don't always succeed in this, especially w More...

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Oct 03, 2009

Michelle rated it:

I really fell in love with this book at the beginning. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but it just felt so "Mexican" and there was a lot that I felt I could relate to. There were moments that I wondered if Sandra Cisneros had heard about my family and was ripping off some of our stories/characteristics... I did feel the last hundred pages lost some of the steam from first 300, maybe writing a book of this magnitude was too much for her. But overall, I really enjoyed it, it More...

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