The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros

Apr 2013 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago • Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage...and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review

The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting."

Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you're from. 

Ratings and reviews

I can tell some of the reoccurring themes that are trying to be shown through the vignettes, but I think the writing style is too different for me to understand for example, the fact that dialogue has no quotation marks is confusing. I also feel like if I tried to put this narrative on a plot diagram, it wouldn't work. But the figurative language is nice.

It was quite a drag for me. Maybe I felt like that because I was forced to write a character analysis and I only needed to focus on Esperanza but she kept talking about all these other characters. There were too many characters that had little parts here and there. When they spoke, they didn't use quotes so the change between dialogue and narration was confusing. I couldn't even finish the book I had to listen to the audio version on yt because it went on too long and I just wanted to be done with it.

"The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros is an okay book. I didn't really understand it because it kept going from one topic to another. You really have to keep up with the book. The plot is all over the place. And at times it can be very descriptive. The main character, Esperanza, is the one narrating the story. If you can keep up with this kind of book, I recommend it. But if you get lost easily, I don't really recommend it.

About the author

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working-class. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, the Texas Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur Fellowship, several honorary doctorates and national and international book awards, including Chicago’s Fifth Star Award, the PEN Center USA Literary Award, and the National Medal of the Arts awarded to her by President Obama in 2016. Most recently, she received the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized among The Frederick Douglass 200, and was awarded the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

Her classic, coming-of-age novel, The House on Mango Street, has sold over six million copies, has been translated into over twenty languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation.

In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two non-profits she founded: the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. She is also the organizer of Los MacArturos, Latino MacArthur fellows who are community activists. Her literary papers are preserved in Texas at the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University. 

Sandra Cisneros is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico and earns her living by her pen. She currently lives in San Miguel de Allende.