This was a bus read, meaning I only read it on the bus to and from campus. It worked out pretty well and I finished it surprisingly quickly considering I read about 15 minutes per day.
The book is written from the point of view of Esperanza, a young Latina living in the inner city of somewhere. Rather than a narrative, it consists of 2-3 page "stories" that jump around, but do seem to signify that Esperanza is growing up. This is an interesting style because you can meet a million different intriguing characters without having to worry about following them, but I prefer novels with a clear direction. It's also interesting to read from the point of view of a child, but after a while, it gets annoying reading awkward writing and poor metaphors. Seemed to me like Cisneros was trying a little too hard to be both childish and poetic. But as I said, it was rich in character and culture, and it was a quick read. Not a bad book to choose for reading away from the complexity of school textbooks.
2 comments:
"It's also interesting to read from the point of view of a child, but after a while, it gets annoying reading awkward writing and poor metaphors."
I can't tell you how many times my history professors wrote this at the end of my research papers.
Yeah, have to agree with the original poster. Most of the joy of reading Mango Street comes from laughing at the stupendously purple passages and the heavy handed feminism. Still, it is fun, joyful reading that doesn't expect much from the reader, which is more than you can say about a lot of books. Definitely above average.
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