By Sandra Cisneros
Having read some wonderful reviews, I was quiet baffled by the size of the book. It is even smaller than ‘Love Story’ and you can breeze past the hundred odd pages in a single hour. But that said this book is three things – Poetic. Terse. Powerful. The writing style of Cisneros is what is defined as vignettes; and this is first of its kind for me and I enjoyed it!
The book is a compilation of short chapters that describe events, people, emotions everything in a nutshell. More than the words, it’s the unwritten language between words that makes the reading a pleasure.
Esperanza is the young protagonist, growing up in a Latino neighborhood of Mango Street in Chicago. The narrative compiles her observations of her close world of friends, relatives and neighbors. She distractedly notes the man who locks up his wife, the aunt who is forever sick and hence sickness seems normal, the friend who is beaten by her father and all the vileness around her. Before you wince, the book has way more happy moments too – of being children, of finding that you have turned a woman, of family time.
These strewn pieces of the hazy puzzle, that is at times heart-breaking and other times putting a smile on your face with the witty remarks, make a terrific lazy afternoon read. The determination of the protagonist to change her world for better and live away, yet never let go of her descent substantiates the hope and inspiration for many who are caught in the similar web of bad neighborhoods, hooting drunk men and coming of age before time. I am definitely picking up Cisneros’s poetry book next!
The book is a compilation of short chapters that describe events, people, emotions everything in a nutshell. More than the words, it’s the unwritten language between words that makes the reading a pleasure.
Esperanza is the young protagonist, growing up in a Latino neighborhood of Mango Street in Chicago. The narrative compiles her observations of her close world of friends, relatives and neighbors. She distractedly notes the man who locks up his wife, the aunt who is forever sick and hence sickness seems normal, the friend who is beaten by her father and all the vileness around her. Before you wince, the book has way more happy moments too – of being children, of finding that you have turned a woman, of family time.
These strewn pieces of the hazy puzzle, that is at times heart-breaking and other times putting a smile on your face with the witty remarks, make a terrific lazy afternoon read. The determination of the protagonist to change her world for better and live away, yet never let go of her descent substantiates the hope and inspiration for many who are caught in the similar web of bad neighborhoods, hooting drunk men and coming of age before time. I am definitely picking up Cisneros’s poetry book next!
