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Mar 05, 2010

Kim rated it:

It’s a little after 2am. I’m having the dreams.

The ones that blindside me and have that weird echo --- is or isn’t this real? Sleep isn’t going to happen. What’s new. I leave my room to check out the house. Doors locked? Check. Kids asleep? Check…whoa, hold up a minute. Em is awake. She’s sitting in the living room illuminated by a booklite. She’s got about 4 blankets piled on top of her and she’s….. reading. Reading? I’m used to the insomnia, on both our parts… we k More...

8 comments like (53 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kate rated it:

(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 More...

0 comments like (19 people liked it)

May 25, 2008

Jessica rated it:

The description on goodreads describes this as a novel. It is not a novel. It isn't a collection of stories either. The word is "vignette"--snapshots of significant moments, people, in young Esperanza's day-to-day life, sprinkled with her understanding that she will leave this House on Mango Street, and the Houses not on Mango Street that could be on Mango Street, and write, but that Mango Street will never leave her. There is no central plot line or conflict. Some characters go a More...

3 comments like (16 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

T rated it:

She is a good poet who penned a mediocre "novel." I tell you, it is on the slim side of a novella. Physically, the book is short (maybe 5/7 the height of a standard paperbook), 12 point font, double-spaced, 134 pages long with 44 chapters and each one is set apart with its own half page. Oh, and the content? Just what you'd expect. Why, I bet Cisneros spent a whole afternoon writing what you could read in an afternoon.

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2010

miaaa rated it:

Let me tell you one story my dear fellow readers. A story about a young girl who is able to portray her life as an immigrant in the most simple way. It's not an easy life I assume but the way she portrays it in simple descrptions cause a havoc in my brain. Born as a girl in the society where strong women are not acceptable, she inherites her great-grandmother's name but she refuses to inherite the defeat her great-grandmother had suffered. She's young, so are her little sister and her two young More...

13 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2010

"that rated it:

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 wor More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

Kirk rated it:

I must admit, out of all the books I've read, this is one of the worst. The writing style is boring, the story: not moving, and the premise is even sleepier then Ameno Acid injected into a Ronald Regan Film. Yuck.

76 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2008

George rated it:

This book was extreamly bad and while reading it I wanted to shoot my self, it was as bad as "To Kill A Mockingbird"

6 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2010

Carolyn rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2007

Rachel rated it:

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, ab More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2008

Alex rated it:

I had the opportunity to meet Sandra in one of her book readings and I was so overcome with emotions I was part babbling, part crying and part laughing with joy. I had to thank her because there was finally someone in the literary world that understood me and was able to tell stories that were similar to mine growing up as a Mexican in Chicago. I adore this book because I finally felt like I wasn't alone! I've seen so many stereotypes of hispanic people and I never felt like I identified with an More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2008

Rose Ann rated it:

I did not care for the style of writing...each small chapter(1.5-2 pgs.)(vignette), is a snippet of what life is like on Mango Street for Esperanza. Tbe idea of these snippets (vignettes) is great, but they never kept my attention or painted a vivid picture for me.
It is not a continuous plot, that keeps you hanging. I'm not used to this style, so it really didnt "grab" me.
I was hoping that throughout the book I would connect with the character or "feel" somethin More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Kayla rated it:

This is my all time favorite--it's short and poignant. You can read it quickly for sheer enjoyment (it reads poetically) or you can dig your heels in and really take note of Latino culture. In all reality though, one of the reasons I love it so much is that it doesn't only discuss Latino culture but middle and lower class America. And Cisneros alsos really brings out slippery domestic issues women face everywhere. It's sweet, it's sad, It's a bit scary and funny--IT'S 100 pages or so of WONDERFU More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Lindsey rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2008

Brin rated it:

The House on Mango Street to many people was viewed as this excellent book. People though it was appealing that there was an unreliable narrator and that they need to assume or figure out what the true meaning was. To me this kind of book does not appeal at all to me.
It is about a young girl growing up in a sort of Hispanic ghetto area and having to deal with the challenges of life. Although she is nothing but an average girl, in the book not so average and very disturbing, sad More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Rosemarie rated it:

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros isn't classified as a novel. In other words it was a type of book that included many different stories. I wasn't used to this way of writing because each chapter was less than four - five pages. Even though it was a new experience for me, I absolutely loved this book. I admired the way Sandra Cisneros uses metaphors and simalies to describe Mango Street. Esperanze the main character explains the meaning of how it feels to live in Mango Street a t More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2009

vylit rated it:

The House on Mango Street is obviously not for everyone. I do, however, think it is a good example of how Latina authors are playing with the concept of the novel. Cisneros changes the structure of the novel in order to tell her story instead of changing her story to fit the classic narrative structure of the novel. I think it works well, and the story flows beautifully and poetically with a young life captured in few words.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

Mia Claire rated it:

The House on the Mango Street is brilliant. With a catchy title and an innocent voice of a child, Sandra Cisneros tells us a story of a girl in a series of vignettes. Readers will be moved by the power of Cisneros’s words. From the moment I opened the book and read the first chapter of this book, I knew right away that it has a lot to offer…

“We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor… and before that I can’t remember. But what I remember More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 21, 2010

Kathy rated it:

This book is GREAT ! This book is about a Mexican Girl named Esperanza. She is mexian american. She lives on a house on mango street. Basically Esperanza goes through stuff every teenage girl probably would go through. Shewnt through stuff like puberty, Making friends and more.

Theres one thing that happens to Esperanza that could change any teenager's life forever. At twelve esperanza was molested. Esperanza felt alone and sad. She felt like she didn't belong in this world.

More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2010

Rashi rated it:

The book was unique. The way the book was organized into vignettes made the story a little confusing at times. Though it was confusing, I still enjoyed reading a few of the vignettes. Still, this book was not the best for me.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 18, 2009

Christa rated it:

This book that I read was a different kind of book. It wasn't your typical chapter book. Throughout the whole book it was more like series of short stories. The longest story was only two pages long!! The shortest was only a few sentences. This is a reflective piece of writing because of the way she is telling the short stories. Then near the end of the book, the stories begin to be told as a narrative writing. This book I can see either a guy or girl reading however a girl is narrating it More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Meng Qian rated it:

This book is based on the life of a Mexican-American girl, Esperanza Cordero who moves to a house on Mango Street with her poor family. The house is located in a crowded Latino neighborhood in Chicago, a city where many of the poor areas are racially segregated. Through the book, Esperanza becomes more mature, and gains a lot of experiences; she makes friends (Lucy or Rachel), grows hips, develops her first crush, endures sexual assault, and etc. Later on, Esperanza meets another girl, Sally More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Jocelyn rated it:

I once read “Linoleum Roses” in a short story anthology prior to reading the novel and, after reading the novel in its entirety, I can honestly say it’s much better served as a chapter than as a single story.

“The House on Mango Street” centers on the world of a young girl named Esperanza. Each chapter is very short, some shorter than 300 words, seemingly disjointed and loosely connected little memories of things and people. All told from first person narrative, of observational accou More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

bookczuk rated it:

What a scrumptiously delightful book. I picked this copy up at Goodwill, simply because I have never read it and felt I should. Then I found out it was a "coming of age" novel and inwardly groaned to myself. I have had some distasteful reactions to a couple of coming of age novels, the most recent being The Last Picture Show (To paraphrase, my review of that was " I was less than swept away by this book. In fact, I didn't finish it, because I just couldn't stomach it. I gues More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Lillian rated it:

'The House on Mango Street', by Sandra Cisneros is a very interesting book. A girl, named Esperanza, is a very bright girl, who doesnt live in a nice neighborhood. Esperanza has a lot of different types of people who come in and out of her life and makes her experience new things and it makes her a lot stronger. She has a dream or growning up and leaving Mango Street, where her family finally bought a house that is theirs, and moving on with her life, not letting anything that happened with her More...

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Dec 29, 2011

Ashley rated it:

Sandra Cisneros the author of The HOUSE ON THE MANGO STREET wrote this book about womenhood and what everyone expects women to do, what to be and how to live but she also shows that no matter how much people doubt you, you can always come over what society determines you to be.
for example,when the main character, Esperanza, talks about how she isnt as pretty as other girls and i think the message behind the chapter is that when you're not pretty things don't come easy for More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2011

Christina (Reading Thru The Night) rated it:

The House on Mango Street seemed to be one of those novellas that every Freshman Comp class but mine! It's taken many years, but I've finally picked it up (even if by accident).

I really like how Cisneros organized HoMS. I read the foreword by her and thought it was interesting that initially when she was writing this in college, it was to be autobiographical. Somehow, however, Mango Street was created with all of these wonderful little characters that encompassed many different traits More...

0 comments like

Nov 09, 2011

Harmonybites rated it:

I found the introduction filled with unintended ironies. Cisneros said she wanted to write a book that you could turn to any page and find it accessible. For one thing, she said she was "abandoning quotation marks to streamline the typography and make the page as simple and readable as possible." Really? Personally, as far as I'm concerned, punctuation marks are our friends. Quotation marks in the most economical way signal that we are reading a conversation, and through conventions su More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Keilani rated it:

It's ok, but also frustrating. I knew going in that it was a series of
short stories loosely based on the author's experience growing up. Her
intro made it a little more interesting, though her anger at not being
like what she perceived as "everyone else" or at them not being like her
is a little off-putting. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the
"everyone else" in the class were all different as well, she just never
tried to find out, she j More...

0 comments like

Sep 10, 2011

Michelle rated it:

I enjoyed The House on Mango Street and would read it again. It offered an interesting perspective of life in the inner-city as well as the Latino culture. Although it is fiction, the author uses her own life experiences to write realistic stories about a young Mexican-American girl growing up in an inner-city neighborhood. This multi-themed story brings up issues such as poverty, alcoholism, abuse, superstitions, and thoughts of suicide. Written as a first-person narrative, the main character E More...

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