Book Review: The House On Mango Street

I have read “The house on Mango Street”. I loved this book, you know? I read it last night, in less than two hours, after more or less two weeks with a reader block. The thing is that lately I’ve read such good books, which I have given five stars out of five (although I have not reviewed them all), that sometimes it is difficult to lower your expectations when you have such a good streak for so long. I have been reading many books halfway, I leave them there, for later, although I do like them. But this one is so brief and so simple that I couldn’t leave it halfway because without realizing it I had already finished it.

The book is narrated by Esperanza, who with her family finally move into a house on Mango Street. They had never had a house, they had always lived renting, renting, renting. Esperanza tells us that she always dreamed of a house that she could point to and say she lived there without feeling ashamed, but the house on Mango Street is not like that. As the same book tells, it is the story of a girl who does not belong anywhere.

The story is told in the form of vignettes, so it is not exactly linear. The chapters are very short and you will tell anecdotes with very basic English but with a poetry that you will fall in love with. She shows you her neighbors, her life, her family, everything as she wants, everything as she sees fit. There are sentences that rhyme, there are sentences that do not rhyme, and there are many metaphors. We get into a Latin neighborhood in the USA, together with Esperanza, with Sandra, and it is impossible, at least for me, not to find a piece of us in them.

It is a book that I would highly recommend to a person who does not usually read because it is easy to follow, because of the short chapters, and because it is a very short story. I also recommend it for those who want to venture to read in English since, as the story is told by a Latin protagonist, it is quite basic and it would be very difficult to miss, since the words are very familiar. It is a simple vocabulary, but very beautiful as it was used.

I like all the characters and I became very attached. It is one of those books that you finish reading and you already miss it. At least form me.