House on Mango Street - Unique slice-of-life style - Neat book!

When The House on Mango Street arrived in my mailbox through half.com, I thought: What the heck is this? It was a skinny little book with 110 pages. It looked like it might be a book for young adults, so I thought I might be a little bored reading the book. Though I do read some of the YA’s, I’m more likely to buy an adult book. After all, I am an adult (most days).

When I started reading House on Mango Street, I was still saying: What is this?

It felt like I had stumbled on a young girl’s journal or maybe the short essays that she wrote in school but didn’t turn in to the teacher. After seeing the pieces that my boys write and seeing student papers, I have come to the conclusion that most of the “good stuff” never gets turned in. Caleb had to write about “a building.” Instead of writing about his clubhouse or the barbershop on the corner, which he knows so well, he made up a fancy office building. The fancy building essay was not very good. Sigh! Some days I feel like the shoemaker who did not make his kids any shoes to wear.

The very short pieces in Mango include the “good stuff” as told by a young, Esperanza. She simply tells you what she is thinking.

For example, Esperanza thinks about her name as a Mexican-American child in a school where most everyone is white and with different sounding names.

“At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth.”

On the social scene, here is one of my favorite paragraphs in the book . . .

“Meanwhile that boy who is my cousin by first communion or something, asks me to dance and I can’t. Just stuff my feet under the metal folding chair stamped Precious Blood and pick on a wad of brown gum that’s stuck beneath the seat. I shake my head no. My feet growing bigger and bigger.”

These samples are what you see in the book . . . very vivid descriptions told in a child voice but with the depth to bring back memories and to make you think even if your experiences were different.

Though some of the observations (chapters) only run a few paragraphs, they all have heart and capture what it is like to grow up female and non-white. In a couple of places, I did question whether the young Esperanza could really process information this well. But, overall, the book does ring true.

I read this book, and then I read it again. I’m sure I’ll hang on to this one. I probably would not sell it on half.com, since the cockatiel got ahold of it and chewed the edges. It is a simple book, but you have to go back to catch all the messages. I fell in love with this book as I read and then reread passages. There were many parts where I thought: “I’ll have to come back and think about this more.

After I finished the book and worked out my thoughts on it for review, I did more research. I was really curious about the book and the author. Mango had so much personality. I knew the writer must have a good story too.

House on Mango Street was published in 1989. It was not expected to do much. After all, it was very different from most books on the market, and it still is today. Another problem was the classification, which I mentioned earlier. What is this book? Where do you put in the bookstore and in the library?

“Critics have had difficulty with the classification of this book's genre. Does it belong to Children's literature? short story? novel? essay? autobiography? poetry? women's studies?” *quote from University of Delaware book review at http://odin.english.udel.edu/josephk/usia/maflapr.htm

I guess I would say that it goes in all those categories and none of them. Kids, young adults and adults would enjoy the book. I would recommend it for any female from ages about 12 and up. It is one that you could relate to as a kid and then understand more as an older female.

Over time, this book has gathered an underground following. It is used for some women’s or cultural studies classes across the nation. I’m not surprised. It really is a gem.

Cisneros based Mango on her own life.

Cisneros has a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother and a lot of brothers. The family moved between Mexico and the US.

Being different and making lots of changes can be hard on a kid. I know it was on my boys. The thing that really mattered a lot to my boys was having a normal house and to live in it and stay put. Three years ago, I was able to make that happen.

That is not the reality for many kids including Cisneros. She is able to capture that uneasiness in the voice of Esperanza. Esperanza just wants to fit in and have a home and family. Things don’t work out the way she pictures them, and you see the world through her eyes. The vision is poetic and will haunt you long after you read the book.