The House on Mango Street

Published: April 3, 1991

Pages: 110 (Paperback Edition)

Publisher: Vintage Books, USA

SUMMARY:

The House on Mango Street documents the life of Sandra Cisneros and her experience growing up on Mango Street. The novel is told from the perspective of Cisneros in a collection of 44 short stories.

REVIEW:

My overall review for this novel is four stars out of five. I was immensely intrigued at the idea of an author describing their life story in a collection of vignettes, which propelled me to give this story a shot. While I found this novel entertaining, It did not meet the expectations I formerly set for it. Aside from the cons that found themselves with me, I still found this novel to be an admirable read with a fast-approaching end.

CHARACTERS:

The characters were fairly neutral towards me in this novel. I wasn't overly invested in them, but wasn't bored with them either. I felt that Cisneros did an adequate job of describing her childhood peers to us, along with the members of her family. However, I feel that I may have been a tad more satisfied if I shared more screen time with these characters.

WRITING STYLE The writing style (for me) was the anchor that brought this book down. I am aware that Cisneros has immense potential as a writer, But I couldn't grasp it with this novel. I found the writing to be very choppy and fragmented for the duration of the novel, and as a stickler for proper English; that fact didn't sit well with me.

PLOT

The plot was a pro for me in this novel. I found the documentation of Cisnero's life to be honest and full of detail. I found all of the stories to have a satisfying and smooth flow to them; I found them all to coincide quite well with each other.

P.O.V

The perspective of the novel was an enjoyable element to the reading. While I felt that the transition of the time lapses could have been better done, the overall P.O.V was satisfactory and earned a job well done.

CONCLUSION While this is a beloved novel of many, I don't necessarily share the same amount of love that countless people feel for this work. But I did enjoyed my time reading it, and would not hesitate to recommend this novel to anyone looking for a quick read. Thanks for reading. :)