The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 7346)
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
extremely bored people who prefer very short novels
Remember those comforting old two-dimensional animated films in which visually simple characters moved around in front of a relatively vivid, richly-painted backdrop that never moved?
Yeah. That would be this book.
My three-star rating is an uneasy averaging of various warring opinions in my head. The overall setting and feel of Mango Street and its surrounding milieu are, as in those old cartoons, a backdrop that is vivid and well-executed, but generally just sits there in the backgroun...more
Yeah. That would be this book.
My three-star rating is an uneasy averaging of various warring opinions in my head. The overall setting and feel of Mango Street and its surrounding milieu are, as in those old cartoons, a backdrop that is vivid and well-executed, but generally just sits there in the backgroun...more
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Read in November, 2008
This book is about a young girl growing up in a latin neighborhood in Chicago. Her story is told in a series of poems which create a nice flow to her story. The house where she lived as a young girl was on Mango Street. The most intruiging part of this book was that Sandra Cisneros was able to connect each different poem and also let the reader learn something new about the main character. In the beginning of the book, Cisneros talked about the family and how the people in the family differed. T...more
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Read in October, 2006
True working-class literature is still too rare. To be a working-class writer writing about working-class characters seems anathema to publishers. Some suggest this is due to editors and publishers being unlikely to be themselves working-class, and so little appreciate characters who earn wages without ever reaping the financial profits from their labor. Another reason may be that Americans hold a vision of middle or upper class life as our stereotypical "American Dream." Who dreams o...more
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Read in March, 2007
(Original pub date: 1984)
This is another one of those "reading list classics" that I figured I should try. Especially since it's really short! ;) The book consists entirely of vignettes from the author's childhood in a poor section of Chicago. The writing is beautiful and spare - no vignette is longer that 2 or 3 pages (and the font is huge and widely spaced). It reads like poetry, really - the words are potent and evocative rather than exhaustively descriptive.
My reading of ...more
This is another one of those "reading list classics" that I figured I should try. Especially since it's really short! ;) The book consists entirely of vignettes from the author's childhood in a poor section of Chicago. The writing is beautiful and spare - no vignette is longer that 2 or 3 pages (and the font is huge and widely spaced). It reads like poetry, really - the words are potent and evocative rather than exhaustively descriptive.
My reading of ...more
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recommends it for:
everyone
I love the House on Mango Street. I first read it in 9th grade for some cultural assignment, but I ended up picking it up at half price books and reading it periodically through high school. It is a compilation of vignettes about this little Hispanic girl who lives on Mango Street. Each vignette brings something new to her personality. My favorite vignette is the one where she talks about her name, Esperanza. She talks all about her name- how she got it, what it means, what she wishes it was. An...more
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Read in June, 2007
The House on Mango Street is such an angry and sad memoir that it is essentially beyond criticism. But I'll review it still. First, it should be noted that the perception of this book by the education community in general is a bit off. It physically appears like a novel for sixth graders with its one page chapters and 110-page length and plentiful blank space between chapters. However, it most certainly is an adult novel. Those are not chapters, they are vignettes. And many of them are abou...more
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Read in December, 2006
As I review my list of favorite books, I see that I enjoy reading coming of age novels, like "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Secret Life of Bees". "The House on Mango Street" is part of that genre but with a multicultural emphasis. This is the story of Esperanza who is growing up in a place that she doesn't feel she belongs. She talks about her friends, sisters and neighbors. She provides an interesting dialect that indicates her Hispanic culture. She suffers in th...more
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I've read this book twice. The first was by myself a few years ago, around fifth grade. That wasn't the right time to read it, because I couldn't appreciate the beauty and simplicity in Sandra Cisnero's writing.
This year, we read most of "The House on Mango Street" in English with my amazing teacher Mrs. Rudin. Before reading it, however, we read a poem (or incredibly short story - it was a page) by S.C. first, to get a sense of her writing. It was incredibly beautiful, about ...more
This year, we read most of "The House on Mango Street" in English with my amazing teacher Mrs. Rudin. Before reading it, however, we read a poem (or incredibly short story - it was a page) by S.C. first, to get a sense of her writing. It was incredibly beautiful, about ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to "that by:
My spanish teacherrecommends it for: people who enjoy really wierd book
This was without a doubt one of the worst books I have EVER read. Now, before I go any further, I would like to say that when I read this book, I read it in Spanish. Because Spanish is not my first language, this created some difficulties understanding the material.
With that said, it was still a bad book. There was no actual plot, because this story was a biography of the author. In other words, if you swap out a few key names, it will be the story of the writer's life. In other words, the ...more
With that said, it was still a bad book. There was no actual plot, because this story was a biography of the author. In other words, if you swap out a few key names, it will be the story of the writer's life. In other words, the ...more
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Read in May, 2008
Continuing in the multicultural category, I picked up this slim volume in the Midpark library, which has a huge section of multicultural books. The author grew up in Chicago in the Latino district. She is a poet and it comes across in this book. Her imagery is wonderful. I'm sure this is autobiographical. The chapters are anywhere from a paragragh to several pages. It is the coming of age years for Esperanza Cordero. Her name means hope and she expresses her hope to escape Mango Street and find ...more
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Read in June, 2008
I first read this as a college sophomore for an introduction to literature class. My teacher posed this question: "Is this fiction? Or poetry?" The book cover says Fiction/Literature.
For some reason I was thinking about that yesterday, so pulled the book from the shelf and spent much of the day with it. (Yes, it's a nice quick read--physically--but it demands to do more than spoonfeed you.)
It is a fusion of poetry and prose. There is a larger story here, and we can draw it...more
For some reason I was thinking about that yesterday, so pulled the book from the shelf and spent much of the day with it. (Yes, it's a nice quick read--physically--but it demands to do more than spoonfeed you.)
It is a fusion of poetry and prose. There is a larger story here, and we can draw it...more
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A series of short vignettes tell this poignant story of Esparanza a young girl whose dream is to have "a house all my own... Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem."
Each "chapter" is poetic, succinct and in each one Sandra Cisneros manages to capture the sadness, confusion, joy, dreams, desperation, hopes and the beauty in growing up, becoming a woman and taking control of your own life. Esparanza tells her own story as wel...more
Each "chapter" is poetic, succinct and in each one Sandra Cisneros manages to capture the sadness, confusion, joy, dreams, desperation, hopes and the beauty in growing up, becoming a woman and taking control of your own life. Esparanza tells her own story as wel...more
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I really expected something more from House on Mango Street, especially after reading such glowing reviews.
It's a creative, inventive, courageous piece of writing, painting the coming of age of a young Latina in an ethnically mixed, lower class Chicago neighborhood. Each 'chapter,' some of which are only a few sentences in length, is a little vignette of a different aspect of Esperanza's life in her home, on the street, with relatives, at school, and in her wider neighborhood.
It's written in...more
It's a creative, inventive, courageous piece of writing, painting the coming of age of a young Latina in an ethnically mixed, lower class Chicago neighborhood. Each 'chapter,' some of which are only a few sentences in length, is a little vignette of a different aspect of Esperanza's life in her home, on the street, with relatives, at school, and in her wider neighborhood.
It's written in...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
people who can think about what they read, even if it takes them two tries (like me)
The first time I read this book, I did not understand what the point was. Every "chapter" seemed random. I was about to give this book a one or two, but when I started to summarize it for school and analyzed each seperate "chapter" I really started to appreciate it.
You can't just read through this book quickly. Even if you have to read it twice its worth reading. To truly appreciate it, think about what each chapter means in Esperanza's life.
I loved how this book show...more
You can't just read through this book quickly. Even if you have to read it twice its worth reading. To truly appreciate it, think about what each chapter means in Esperanza's life.
I loved how this book show...more
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Previously I had given this book 3 stars - a measly "liked it" - for lack of remembering the content residing therein this book of vignettes. My 14-year-old mind was unable to measure any significant depth of Sandra Cisneros’s novel. Perhaps the former notions of my mind satisfied the first level of reading and understanding Mango Street; I was only able to grasp it at a child's learning, which inevitably summed this book into another, boring, summer-reading-book-for-honors-English.
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The House on Mango Street was a honest and passionate piece of work with Sandra Cisneros using metaphors and images. The childhood of Esperanza, the young and imaginative narrator is told. She was part of an impoverished Latino family in Chicago. Basically, this novel highlights her life from her childish pleasures of a used bicycle and the companionship of neighborhood trees to the disappointment of having to move to mango street and the guilt of losing a relative. We see how Esperanza grows ...more
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Read in January, 1996
recommended to Dorkus by:
my seventh grade english teacher.recommends it for: young latin women. creepy old mexican guys.
i had to read this over the summer for school. it was an easy read, but was troubled by some of the material. since it is written from the viewpoint of a young woman going through puberty and how her life unfolds in the slums of mango street, i found myself attaching close to the character. but then she meets crooks, and adulters, and child molesters, and expiriences normal girl stuff, it was just weird... wasn't what i was expecting anyway.
i wish there could be a book written from an asian ...more
i wish there could be a book written from an asian ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Keri by:
Daniel, Joli, Laura & Luke
Daniel just lent me this so it will be the next book I read. Yey. Later..Daniel came back and started reading this and I finished mine so now we are literally and physically reading the same book. We will see how it goes. Later...It went just as he predicted. He is reading it at his pace which is slow since he is busy with life and I just came along in the middle and read it in about one day not getting in his way at all. This book made me feel I could write a book like this. Many of the paintin...more
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Read in June, 2008
An interesting read! Sandra Cisneros has a different style than most writers. The story of Esperanza is told through vignettes, brief stories that are bare glimpses into her life as a Hispanic teenager in urban Chicago. You can tell the author is a poet from her comparisons and connection. Very poetic.
What I found interesting were the stories she chose to share. Esperanza is not exactly hero material, she has weaknesses and flaws just like everyone else. Also every story showed a new f...more
What I found interesting were the stories she chose to share. Esperanza is not exactly hero material, she has weaknesses and flaws just like everyone else. Also every story showed a new f...more
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Read in February, 2008
What a beautiful book! I think the voice is really crucial to this book-- the main character is a 12/13 year old girl who sees and processes things through such young, innocent eyes that it makes scenes like child abuse easier to handle, though still completely heartbreaking. I feel like everyone woman, regardless of socio-economic status or race can relate to this girl because we've all been through that age, and once you relate with her you realize she has some really profound obvservations ab...more
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