Our house. In the middle of the street.

It occurs to me that I don't know if this book was originally intended to be considered a young adult novel back in 1984 when it was published. Over the past twenty-plus years since it came out, though, it's certainly been remembered that way. Recognizing that the book is a marvel in its own right, "Mango Street" is a kind of introductory work of fiction that occasionally crosses over into magical realism and poetry. And honestly, it could go either way. Though you may have never heard of it before, Sandra Cisneros's masterpiece is on every Young Adult Literature syllabus in the country. And honestly, I feel a little out of my league reviewing it. I'm accustomed to reading those young adult novels that have only barely crossed over from straightforward "Curious George" levels of complexity into pre-"Catcher In the Rye" heights. So when something like this book comes along, I am flummoxed. All I can say is that it's smart, sharp, and in spite of its dour tone, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Esperanza Cordero is our heroine. Through her own eyes she's suffering from all the normal adolescent uncertainties and self-doubts. Yet even as she tells us her problems and her life you get a clear sense of just how smart and insightful this young woman has already become. Through Esperanza you see the myriad of neighbors on the somewhat dilapidated Mango Street. Prone to sentences like, "there's that white puffy cloud that looks like your face when you wake up after falling asleep with all your clothes on", she deftly observes everyone about her. And when told by three graces that she will someday leave, Esperanza knows that she'll come back to try to save and rescue other people who might never make it any farther than broken down old Mango Street.

"The House On Mango Street" is like a verse novel before they existed. Though written, ostensibly, in prose the book's storyline has a lyrical ebb and flow to it. Each tiny chapter could be expanded into its own novel. An especially impressive fact when you consider that there are 45 chapters in total. My favorite of these chapters was one simply entitled, "Bums In the Attic", when Esperanza mentions that when she is rich she'll let passing bums into her attic to stay when they've nowhere else to go. "Some days after dinner, guests and I will sit in front of a fire. Floorboards will squeak upstairs. The attic grumble. Rats? they'll ask. Bums, I'll say, and I'll be happy". So goes the whole of the book. So well is it written.

Some people avoid great literature like the plague because they fear it'll make them feel dumb or depress them in some way. I can think of no worse reasons to avoid "The House on Mango Street". You're a slow reader? The book is short and sweet. Think it'll make you feel stupid? You'll rejoice in understanding everything on a first reading, and even more on a second. Think it'll depress you? Maybe. But given the correct mood, watching Sesame Street can depress a person. And this book even has a happy ending. A hopeful ending. An ending worth reading. If you want to claim that you've read many a classic novel in your day, you've read nothing until you've paged through "The House On Mango Street".