Subtle, but Brilliant

The House on Mango Street is another book that popped up on the reading list generated by the (now defunct) BookMatcher at Amazon.com. (I am one of those people that loves lists; I can't seem to help myself). As usual, the BookMatcher was right - I enjoyed reading Sandra Cisneros' book of vignettes about a Latino neighborhood, as told through the young narrator, Esperanza's voice.

Each "chapter" in this book is so short, that it is easy to cruise through them, missing the nuances that Cisneros has instilled in every line. I know that, reading with a toddler around, I probably missed a lot!) Cisneros addresses many issues of growing up in general, as well as living in a poor neighborhood - and being embarrassed about it, and of ethnic identification. One example is the short segment entitled "The Family of Little Feet." In it, Esperanza and her friends are given a bag containing "dancing shoes." When they put them on, they are suddenly transformed from girls into women. Walking around town, a bum notices them and asks for a kiss from them. They run, hide the shoes, and eventually the shoes are thrown out by one of the mothers. The story ends with, "No one complains." The danger and power of growing into womanhood is amazingly portrayed in just four pages.

The language which Cisneros uses is also something to be savored: her prose is deceptively spare. Communicating big ideas in small sentences requires a talent that few writers have. An example from "Four Skinny Trees" reads: "Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here." In comparing her friends on Mango Street to trees, Esperanza is saying a lot about where she lives and who she lives with.

The only way that this book might be more enjoyable would be if someone read it aloud to you, slowly. Reading through it twice would no doubt yield greater insights into the characters and their situations, thereby illuminating the situation of young Latino girls growing up in city neighborhoods. (I should add that reading it without a toddler in yelling distance would probably be helpful as well).

If you like this book, you will also love Woman Hollering Creek, also by Sandra Cisneros.