The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros

In high school, I went through a phase of loving Mexican, Mexican-American and South American literature - I'm sure this was triggered by Allende and Garcia Lorca, but has since expanded to Borges, Saramago, Neruda, and Garcia Marquez. At the time, this one by Mexican-American Cisneros was on my never-ending list, but I never seemed to get to it. Perhaps if I'd realized it was a novella instead of an actual novel, I would have set aside an afternoon to read it. But, I did just that when I came across it in my library at work the other day. This is the story of Esperanza Cordero growing up in a Latino ghetto in Chicago. Esperanza writes as a way to escape her humiliation of living in a run-down shack on Mango street. Her lyrical vignettes about friends, family, and growing up, focus on her desire to be someone more, but ultimately realizing that she does not want to abandon the place that made her into the person she is. Each short chapter focuses on a different time or aspect of Esperanza's life. They do not necessarily connect to one another, other than the fact that they are all about her. The writing is more like poetry than prose, and I found myself reading and re-reading lines and entire chapters just to appreciate the way the words seem to sing off the page. The House on Mango Street features so much of what drew me to Latin American literature in the first place - a focus on family and brilliant language full of pain and possibilities.