Friday’s Book Recommendation is “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros. This novel is an oldie but goodie. The stories within this book are based off of Mango Street on the Latino side of Chicago and as a Milwaukee native, I related to this book the moment I read the first page.
This novel is filled with a series of vignettes (short, descriptive passages that capture a moment in time), and I liked the set up as it paced the book well, with each vignette intertwining into the others to create an overarching story. The novel goes through one year in the life of a 12 year old girl named Esperanza, a Mexican-American, dealing with the realities of becoming a young woman facing racism, classism, sexism, and grappling with those experiences to come into her own identity.
I encountered this book as a young adult and as someone who experienced all of those things around the same age, this book resonated with me. Knowing others have experienced the same frustrations, confusion, and trying to figure out your identity with a culture that is different from the ones around you, helped me understand and work through my own experiences from my teenage years.
As someone who loves poetry and also started writing poetry to help work out those feelings, the imagery of this book was one of my favorite elements. The simple comparisons were still powerful when describing Esperanza’s house, street, family, neighbors, and feelings. Sandra stated that his novel is based on hers and others’ experiences and that shines through with each story.
You can buy “The House on Mango Street’’ at all of the retailers (Amazon, B&N, Audible, etc.). You can also find out more about Sandra Cisneros at sandracisneros.com.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!
Happy reading!