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The House on Mango Street

The House on Mango Street

Author(s): Sandra Cisneros

Location(s): Chicago

Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs

Era(s): 1960s onwards

Location

Content

A series of vignettes, rather than a structured novel, House on Mango Street is Sandra Cisneros’s semi-autobiographical account of growing up Chicana in a poor area of Chicago. Esperanza Cordero, at age eleven, has already discovered that being able to communicate in English is a key to worldly success, and she has begun recording stories of her neighborhood, friends, and everyday life, hoping one day to become a writer. Recreating one year of her life, she vividly depicts the children’s fierce loyalties to each other, their alienation from mainstream society, and their goals in life, sadly limited by the culture and its low expectations for girls and women. Mary Whipple

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

‘Marvellous … spare yet luminous. The subtle power of Cisneros’s storytelling is evident. She communicates all the rapture and rage of growing up in a modern world’ San Francisco Chronicle

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